Final Fantasy VII 1. Trail of Blood

**A/N: I do not own Final Fantasy VII. I do, however, own this plot, and the original characters/myself.**

Heavy breathing and the thudding of his footsteps were in tune with the loud thudding of his heart. That was all Ronnie heard as he ran through the hallways of the 67th floor. That and the disturbing and distressing screams of people being mercilessly slaughtered.

Another scream erupted from somewhere in front of him. Ronnie skidded to a halt and dived behind a nearby wall. He took this time to pause, catch his breath, and reflect on what was happening around him. He honestly didn't know what was happening around him. His frantic mind couldn't fathom it, couldn't accept it.

Ronnie was a simple man. He was a Turk member, sure, but he wasn't what one would call an 'active Turk'. He stayed mostly within the building handling the paperwork no one ever wanted to do. Only when the Turks were short of manpower did Ronnie step into the real world of Gaia—a world quite different from his original Earth, yet similar at the same time.

Gaia had changed drastically since the Incident five years ago; the incident that nearly cost his best friend her life. He wasn't entirely sure that she _was_ really alive, but he always kept that naïve hope that she was simply because she had to be. He wouldn't accept anything else. Just like he couldn't accept his situation just then.

It all started earlier that day. AVALANCHE, the organization Shin-Ra held responsible for the aforementioned drastic changes, had blown up the pillar that held Sector 7 in the sky; and down it had come, crushing and killing everyone both above and below the plate. At least, that's what Shin-Ra told the populous as the President stayed in his office on the 70th floor, listening to classical music as if the death of hundreds meant nothing to him—because, in truth, it didn't.

In reality, the dastardly deed had been done by the Turks, ordered by Shin-Ra. Ronnie had only found out after the event, and the idea of something so horrible being perpetrated by the company he worked for had almost made him vomit. Of course he knew that the Company was no saint, and that it had its dark dealings, its sins, but never could he have imagined anything on the magnitude of what had transpired.

The incident sparked something within Ronnie, some shred of a memory, and he remembered Saan. Not just Saan, but of what she used to constantly talk about for hours on end, never seeming to take a break—for she was usually ranting whenever she talked about it. Ideas and theories and protestations about Shin-Ra, its immorality, and how she loathed the Company; while at the same time expressing how she refused to leave her friends in such a place.

Her friends were an anchor to her, keeping her stuck at Shin-Ra, but they were not a burden. No, not a burden; if anything, they were a little speck of light and hope that kept her going. She would fight for them and die for them, and she nearly had.

Ronnie remembered the Nibelheim Incident vividly. He remembered the cut up bodies of Zack and a young, blond cadet. He remembered pitying them because they were forced to become Hojo's little lab pets. He especially remembered the discovery of Saan, her lifeless body lying beneath a Mako Fountain—how Hojo had "reclaimed" her and her ancient suit of armor and taken her back to the labs, as well.

Ronnie had been furious, his best friend being treated like an object, but he couldn't do a thing. He was simply a paperboy in the biggest corporation on the planet. What could _he_ do? Nothing. But, he didn't have long to worry. Before Hojo had the chance to try anything, the suit had reacted, as if sensing the impure, corrupt thoughts of the greasy scientist and protected Saan's neck and face—the only visible parts of her body—with even more metal when the man had tried to touch her.

She was locked up tight, putting Ronnie's mind to ease a little. She wouldn't be experimented on, that was for sure. None of the scientists, Hojo included, could figure out how to remove the suit. Hojo had cursed Saan day and night, saying she was somehow still controlling the suit even though she was unconscious. He thought her to be in a coma. Pissed and at a loss for what to do, he placed her within a glass chamber filled with Mako, just as he had done with Zack. Fortunately for Ronnie, Saan was placed within the Shin-Ra building, instead of forever away in Nibelheim.

He was somewhat content with the decision, even though it surely hadn't been made for his peace of mind. At least this way, he was able to see Saan whenever he wanted; she still existed. As the years rolled on, he didn't know whether she was ever going to wake up. There were tests run to see if her vitals were all right—nothing changed. It was as if she were in a state of suspended animation. Ronnie wondered if she was even aging at all. He wondered if Zack and the other boy were aging at all; if they were alive.

And then, not but a year ago, Zack had escaped and taken his friend with him. Ronnie had been ecstatic. Not only was one of Saan's friends safe, but it proved that the coma, stasis, whatever it was, could be overcome. But no one ever truly escapes Shin-Ra. Despite Tseng's best efforts to keep the army off the boys, it had caught up with them. Zack had died. The other boy mysteriously disappeared. It was a sad day for many people, Ronnie included, and a strange day for the Shin-Ra scientists.

For whatever reason, Saan's brain waves had spiked. It lasted only for an hour or two, but it was definitely something interesting. The scientists were baffled. Ronnie thought he knew. He thought that she'd sensed Zack's death somehow. It wasn't an unbelievable theory considering what Mako really was—what Shin-Ra didn't want the people knowing it was. He'd silently prayed that she would wake up during those moments; that she would give them all hell. She was the only one who could; she was the only SOLDIER First that remained.

But she didn't wake. She stayed as still as she had for four years. AVALANCHE's attacks increased every day. Shin-Ra was being rocked by explosions. It made its own explosion. And it delivered into Ronnie's hands the very people who were out to destroy it—the people he was out to free.

He thought it was a genius plan. He would free the AVALANCHE members on the promise that they would help him free Saan, and together they would bring down Shin-Ra. Shin-Ra had to be stopped, Ronnie knew that full well. Saan had warned him years ago of what it could possibly be doing, and he had discovered she was usually right. So, he was going to listen, just like he usually did, and do the right thing since nobody within the Company was going to.

After breaking into the storage area that kept confiscated goods, Ronnie stole Saan's old staff weapon. He blew off the dust that had collected on it and stared at the three Materia orbs. He laughed at Shin-Ra's stupidity. Why leave such powerful Materia in the weapon? Leaving the storage area, he made his way to the 67th floor via the stairs. No real reason stood for him taking the stairs, other than perhaps he wanted to release the pent up energy he was gaining from the giddy idea of finally freeing his long lost friend—finally having the power to.

And _that_ was when all hell broke loose…literally. Upon stepping into the halls of floor 67, Ronnie was met with a strange and very strong sense of foreboding. It was like all the hairs on the back of his neck and arms stood on end. He couldn't understand it at first. He certainly was nervous about betraying Shin-Ra, he knew the consequences of such an act, but nervousness had never made his hair stand on end, it had only ever made him slightly queasy.

He had made his way around the rounded wall that held the stairs and came upon the morbid sight of blood on the ground; and a dead body. Ronnie'd stared, mouth agape, at the fallen man. His hands unconsciously tightened around Saan's staff as if it would protect him simply by being there. Gulping, he went a few more steps before a shrill screech pierced his ears. Ronnie had seen enough horror movies in his lifetime to know the sound of a dying woman when he heard one. Scared beyond belief, Ronnie took a deep breath and ran for the holding cells.

Turk protocol told him to investigate what was going on and ensure the safety of the scientists and workers on the floor. Common sense told him to hell with that, self-preservation was the way to go; and he couldn't let whoever (or whatever) was killing people get to the AVALANCHE members before he did, or his plans would be ruined.

He was almost to the branch in the hallways that led to the cells when another heart-wrenching scream, this time male, went into the air. Ronnie'd dived behind the wall, and that's where he now stood, panting and shaking and just all around scared for his life.

He waited and he waited, fighting with himself whether or not he should remain at the wall and play it safe, or go and try to get to the cells. He was leaning more towards just remaining on the wall until a disturbing thought hit him. What if the creature snuck up on him and he was _pinned_ against the wall?

Ronnie made a face. When had the murderer become a _creature_? What else could it have been! Ronnie reasoned. No sounds of gunshots or sword slashes could be heard before the terrifying screams, and he _was_ in the science labs. It wasn't unfathomable that one of Hojo's experiments had escaped and was seeking its revenge.

Taking a breath to calm himself, Ronnie risked a look around the edge of the wall. Oh, how he wished he hadn't! Ronnie's eyes widened as he caught a glimpse of a strange, humanoid shadow cast on the wall. It was coming from the cells. Slapping his hand over his mouth to stop the scream that almost bubbled out of him, Ronnie slammed back against the wall, out of sight, and slid down. It was a nightmare! He was stuck in a nightmare! But, no, that wasn't right. He could never be that lucky. Whatever was making its way through the halls was very much real and it was killing people, murdering them.

He had to remember to breathe. He had to calm himself. If he didn't, he was going to panic—more than he already was! He waited for what felt like an eternity before he risked another peek around the corner. No sign of the monster. He waited more. Another scream; a shout; a second scream. Ronnie bolted for the hallway with the cells.

He slipped a little on the blood trail—oh God!—and completely ignored the fact that he completely failed to ignore the body of a guard broken and crumpled in the corner. The cells. He had to check the cells and make sure the AVALANCHE members were all right. The doors were not thrown ajar, and there were no other signs of forced entry. Ronnie assumed everything to be fine.

He had no idea who was in which cell, not that it mattered since he didn't know any AVALANCHE members personally, and so he chose the middle cell. On the right-hand side. He ran to the door, and upon reaching it, the automated system kicked on, and it opened.

Ronnie's brain was slow to process the fact that he was staring at a pair of glowing, blue eyes under a shock of blond hair until the man in front of him's features transformed from equal surprise to scorn. Ronnie opened his mouth to state his intentions, but he wasn't fast enough. What came out, instead, was a high-pitched, "Meep!" as the blond man grabbed him, quite roughly, by the front of his suit, yanked him into the room, and slammed him against the wall beside the door. Ronnie grunted.

The next few sentences to come were not able to be heard for both Ronnie and the man were yelling at one another, and neither was willing to listen. After a second or two of this gibberish, Ronnie paused long enough to wait his turn and shout:

"I'm here to help!"

"Who are you?" The man in front of him growled, his fists tightening around the fabric of Ronnie's collar.

"Cloud, what's going on?" A soft, feminine voice came from the bed.

Ronnie glanced away from the blond for a brief moment and towards the direction of the voice. On the bed was a young brown-eyed brunette woman wearing a white t-shirt, black mini-skirt, and suspenders. Ronnie found the whole outfit bizarre, what with her endowments, but figured to each his (or her) own. He hadn't been allowed to look at the woman for long before his attention was drawn back to the blond male with a not so polite jerk.

Ronnie was never one to allow himself to be manhandled, at least not in this way, and, with his surprise and fear wearing off, he was quickly becoming irritated with the man threatening him. Staring annoyedly into those shocking blue eyes—definitely a side effect of Mako—Ronnie decided then was just as good a time as any to state who he was and what he was doing there. Before he had to punch the man in front of him.

"Look," he began. "I need your help, and you need mine."

"We don't need help from Turks," the blond said venomously, "and we sure as hell aren't going to help any. You've wasted your time here."

Ronnie opened his mouth to object and say some things he knew he shouldn't, but he was interrupted.

"What's goin' on over there, Spikey?" Came a loud, booming voice from the cell to Ronnie's left. If he wasn't mistaken, the speaker was Black.

"Nothing," the blond replied, loud enough for the other man to hear him. "Just a pest."

The blond drew back to hit Ronnie. Perhaps he meant to knock Ronnie unconscious and he and his friends escape; however, he never got the chance. As Ronnie's grip on Saan's staff tightened and he began to summon some of the magic that had lain dormant within it for five years, the brunette spoke again as she pushed herself off the bed and walked towards them.

"Wait, Cloud!" She said, scanning Ronnie from head to toe, "Maybe we should hear him out. He _did_ open the door for us."

The blond frowned, but heeded to the woman. He lowered his fist, very reluctantly, and continued to glare at Ronnie, not once letting go of his hold on Ronnie's suit. Ronnie, however, was confused. He hadn't opened the door for them. He had been under the impression that the blond, Cloud, had opened it from the inside somehow. Which, now that he thought of it, would have been pretty impossible since the guard, currently dead in the corner, would have kept the door locked and the key on him.

"I didn't open the door for you…" Ronnie trailed off.

"What?" Both people asked simultaneously.

"What do you mean you didn't open it? You had to have opened it; it wasn't open before," Cloud replied, dropping his hate for a moment, as it had been replaced with confusion.

Ronnie thought about it for only a moment. If he had not opened the door, the guard had not opened the door (how could he?), and Cloud had not opened the door, it could only mean the creature had opened the door. Why ever it would do such a thing Ronnie didn't know, but it did thoroughly creep him out. Remembering the creature that was probably on some other floor slaughtering all in its path, Ronnie realized that maybe some things ought to be called to attention before he progressed with his plan speech.

"Uh…" he said uncertainly. "I think perhaps you should look outside…"

Cloud's eyebrows knitted together skeptically, "Why?"

"You're letting us go?" the girl asked, hopeful.

"Er," Ronnie hesitated.

He had to make sure to answer both questions without provoking Cloud. It was in the best interest of everybody that a fight did not break out. Collecting his thoughts, he answered.

"Yes and no. I need your help, like I said before. After that, you'll be free to go wherever you like—"

"Or we could just leave now and ignore your little request," Cloud replied.

Ronnie was annoyed that he'd been interrupted once again, but kept his voice calm and polite, "As for leaving on your own, I really, _really_ suggest that you look outside before making any decisions."

The blond frowned darkly, but then released Ronnie slowly. Giving him a stare that clearly told him to stay put and to not try anything, Cloud left the room and went into the hallway. Ronnie wondered as to what Cloud's reaction would be upon the discovery of the dead body.

Left in the room, Ronnie turned his attention to the brunette. He smiled openly and waved to her. The girl was surprised at his carefree disposition, but eventually smiled a little back at him. Ronnie was a very open and friendly person, being in the Turks hadn't changed that.

He used to always wave at random people in their cars back on Earth—on Gaia, he didn't own a car. Saan had always been perturbed by his openness, constantly bickering with him that if he didn't know someone, he shouldn't talk to them let alone wave at them. Ronnie never listened of course, just thought her anti-social, when in reality she just didn't want unwanted attention drawn her way; and, since she used to always be beside Ronnie, attention undoubtedly traveled to her.

It wasn't long before the blond spoke from outside the room.

"Tifa!" He shouted for the brunette.

"What is it?" She asked curiously.

"Something's wrong. You should come see this."

Frowning in confusion, the brunette, Tifa, left the room and went to join her comrade. Ronnie was left by himself…but only for a second. Feeling that he was no longer in danger of getting decked by the AVALANCHE members, he followed slowly and quietly behind Tifa.

In the hallway, Cloud was kneeling beside the fallen guard. Tifa's expression became one of shock, disgust, and confusion; just as Ronnie's had when he came upon the first victim.

"I wonder what happened…" She said quietly, almost a whisper.

"He should have the key on him," Cloud replied, ignoring Tifa's remark.

The blond, avoiding what bloodstains he could, searched through the guard's clothing for the card key that would open the cell doors. Ronnie didn't like this seemingly disgusting disrespect of the guard, but he knew there was no way around it. The other AVALANCHE members had to be freed, he had to convince them to help him with Saan, and to do that they needed the card key.

Finding the key in the guard's left pocket, Cloud stood up and went into action. He started with the first door.

"Come on, Tifa, get Aerith. I'll go help Barret and the others," he said as he swiped the card through the slot beside the door.

Tifa went to the door. It swished open like all doors in the Shin-Ra building did and she stepped inside to rouse her friend; if she hadn't already been awakened by Cloud and Ronnie's scuffle earlier.

"And _you_ stay put," Cloud commanded, glaring at Ronnie as he went to the last door.

Ronnie obeyed. He understood the reason Cloud and his friends were giving him so much grief. The Turks _had_ been responsible for killing hundreds of people simply to destroy AVALANCHE, they'd captured the Aerith girl, an Ancient according to Tseng, and then thrown the rest in jail when they'd attempted to rescue their friend. He understood it alright, but that didn't mean he had to like it. So, as Cloud opened the door to the other cell, Ronnie stood, clutching Saan's staff, and chanted like a mantra that all the offensive language and actions would be worth it in the end.

"Barret, Red XIII...come with me. Something's wrong," Cloud said.

"How'd you get in? Why's the door open!" The booming voice from before asked.

Ronnie had been correct in his assumption that the speaker was Black. The dark-skinned man ran out of the cell he'd been in, Cloud stepping to the side so that he wasn't accidently bowled over by the man's massive arms (or _arm_, for the other arm was, in fact, a gun) and came to a stop when he saw the body of the guard laying in a pool of its own blood.

The other person to exit the cell was not a person at all, but a four-legged creature with brilliant red fur, one eye missing, and a curious flame that burned at the end of its tail—much like Charmander. Ronnie was immediately taken by the red creature for no other reason than it was a dog; or was it a cat? There were tell-tale signs of both species in the creature. Regardless, Ronnie had always been an animal lover and he knew he would get along well with it. Using the process of elimination, Ronnie surmised that Red XIII was the creature's name; therefore, the man's name had to be Barret.

"This's kinda eerie…" Tifa muttered. Both her and the red-headed Aerith had exited the first cell and were also staring at the body.

"Must've been attacked by…" Aerith trailed off uneasily. She frowned suddenly, almost sorrowfully.

"The hell's goin' on!" Barret shouted.

Ronnie flinched a little. It seemed the older man really loved shouting. Ronnie saw many eyes turn towards him. He didn't understand why at first until he noticed Cloud's glare. They were suspecting him! He opened his mouth to object, but Red XIII did this for him.

"No human could've done this."

Ronnie was vaguely surprised that this creature could speak; but, given what he'd experienced over the years, it wasn't as great a shock as it probably was to other people. Red XIII's head lifted from the ground, where he had been inspecting the body. He looked back down the hallway, in the direction of the trail of blood.

"I'll go on ahead," he said before galloping off.

"I'll clean up back here, so you guys go ahead. And don't get caught by Shin-Ra!" Barret…exclaimed.

Tifa jumped a little, ready for action, "Come on, let's follow Red XIII!"

"Wait!" Cloud commanded just as Tifa started to leave.

She stopped and looked back at him. Everyone looked at him. It was obvious who the leader of the group was. And it was obvious to Ronnie what Cloud wanted to address. After all, the blond's eyes hadn't left him for a while.

"What's your purpose in all this?" Cloud asked. "What do you want?"

Ronnie ignored the fact that that was almost the same question asked two different ways and sighed.

"I have a name and it's Ronnie. I'm a Turk, obviously, I'm wearing the same stupid suit all Turks wear. I came here to help you escape—"

"Why?" Cloud snapped.

"Would you let me finish?" Ronnie snapped back. The two glared at one another for a second before Ronnie continued, "Anyways, I came to help you escape, but upon getting here, I noticed a dead body near the stairs. Then there were screams. I hid from whatever was killing people. When I got to the cells, the door to Cloud's cell was already opened, and you know the rest.

"Now, as to _why_ I wanted to help you, it's because I need your help."

"Why does a Turk want help from AVALANCHE?" Barret asked roughly.

Ronnie sighed again, "Because the Turk is quitting and wants to take someone with him."

All faces turned surprised, some suspicious. It wasn't often that people heard of employees quitting Shin-Ra, let alone someone as high up as a Turk.

"There are a lot of reasons I want to quit, and all are tied to morality—"

Barret snorted, "What morality?"

"Exactly," Ronnie replied, ignoring the interruption, "and the main reason is they have one of my friends hostage just like they took your friend, Aerith."

Aerith's frown returned. Tifa, Barret, and Cloud seemed to be caught off guard. Barret snorted again.

"And why should we believe you? A Turk! Shin-Ra lies all the time, you could be lyin' to us right now for all we know!"

"Then don't believe me," Ronnie replied peevishly.

He should have known that AVALANCHE members would treat whatever he said with a grain of salt. He should have known; but, he needed to believe otherwise. If he didn't, Saan might never be able to come back; he might miss his chance to free her without any repercussions to either one of them.

"Just…" He tried to find his words. "Just let me show you. Let me follow you until we get to where she's being held. If you don't want to help, fine. I'll find some other way to get her out, I guess. Just _please_ allow me that much."

The AVALANCHE members looked uneasy. He knew that his pleas were working on them, pulling on their heartstrings in some way. He had always considered himself an adorable guy, though Saan had never agreed. She would have simply said, "Uh-huh…" and ignored whatever he told her to do most of the time. She tended to do what she wanted to do and nothing else.

"I think we should help him, Cloud," Tifa's gentle voice spoke. "Think of what it was like when they took Aerith. He's probably going through the same thing."

"I think we should help," Aerith nodded firmly.

"I still don't trust him," Cloud mumbled, but the conviction in his voice was wavering. It seemed that the girls had a profound effect on him.

"I don't trust him neither!" Barret nodded, but then he frowned, "However, if there really is someone trapped here by Shin-Ra…I guess we'd better help 'em."

Ronnie grinned stupidly. He was beyond happy that AVALANCHE was going to lend him their strength and save Saan. But, the expression worked better than his pleas had. Not many people in the world can take seriously a full-grown man who grins like an idiot; and if a person isn't taken seriously, than that person isn't seen as a threat, either.

"All right! Let's go!" Ronnie exclaimed, about to bound his merry little way down the hallway.

Cloud gave him a blank look, "We need our weapons first…"

Ronnie paused and took a deep breath, "Weapons. Right. I don't have those. But!" He added at the look Cloud gave him, "They're probably in one of the other cells. The Turks didn't register confiscating them; they probably didn't have enough time. Or simply just didn't care."

Cloud seemed appeased with that answer. Ronnie huffed a sigh of relief as the blond went to the cells on the opposite side of the wall. Luckily for him, the weapons were in the first cell he came to. Both he and Aerith went into room to retrieve their weapons. Ronnie guessed that Red XIII didn't have a weapon. Why would he need one? Tifa was wearing gloves that hinted that she used her fists to fight, and Barret had his weapon fused to his arm. The contraption was very intriguing for Ronnie, yet he wasn't allowed to dwell on its mechanics long before Cloud and Aerith reemerged.

Aerith held within her small hands a plain, metal rod. Unlike Saan's weapon, which contained not only three lethal, bladed points but also a sharp, pointed diamond at the opposite end, Aerith's weapon was meant solely for bludgeoning and probably wasn't a very good weapon at all.

Cloud's sword was ridiculously large in Ronnie's opinion. The size of it would make it unwieldy to anyone; yet, Cloud lifted it as if it were nothing. It was big, sharp, and not very decorative. Definitely not a memorable weapon for Ronnie. However, that did not stop him from thinking briefly about the injustice of the SOLDIERs getting all the good weapons. Cloud _had_ to have been from SOLDIER—Turks got nothing "epic."

"All right!" Ronnie shouted gleefully once again, "Let's go!"

The others looked at him strangely; Cloud glared at him.

"…after you," he added, motioning with his free arm for the others to walk ahead of him.

Cloud took the lead, Aerith and Tifa following after him, and Ronnie stepped into place behind them. Barret stayed behind to clean up the body like he had said he was going to do earlier. Ronnie didn't understand why Barret was wasting his time. The monster, whatever it was, was most likely killing more people and there was no logic behind the AVALANCHE members wasting their time to cover each one of the deaths up, especially since they had not been the perpetrators.

They followed the blood trail—a morbid mockery of the yellow brick road—and it brought them to the main portion of the lab. The group stopped and stared at the disturbing scene in front of them. The two screams Ronnie had heard before now made sense to him. One body lay near the Sample Room; another was in front of a specimen tank. Bloody smears led to the upper floors. The tank itself seemed to have been wrenched apart from within.

Cloud stared at the broken specimen tank, "Did it get away? Jenova…?"

Red XIII, who Ronnie had just now noticed, replied, "Jenova Specimen… Looks like it went to the upper floor using that elevator for the specimens."

The animal started to bound towards the elevator. Ronnie jumped into action.

"Wait!" He shouted, his hand outstretched as if that could stop them.

Red did stop, however, as did everybody else. Barret was just returning from taking care of business. They all faced Ronnie, waiting for him to continue. The time had finally come. His plan was about to come to fruition. His heart was racing again, only this time not in fear but in anticipation and excitement.

"She's here," he said, his voice coming out quieter than he had intended. "Saan's here."

Barret frowned and looked around jerkily. It seemed the man never could act fluidly or calm, or maybe it just seemed that way because he was so big.

"Where?" He asked. "I don't see nobody."

"That's the point. You're not supposed to see her. That was all Hojo's idea," Ronnie replied, stepping away from the group and walking towards the specimen tank that resided in the middle of the room.

He could feel the others' eyes on his back as he walked around the tank. Coming to the wall on the other side, he ran his fingers along it. He was looking for the hidden switch.

"Hojo?" Cloud asked.

"You mean that crazy scientist from before?" Barret added.

"Ah, so you've met him?" Ronnie asked. "Yes, the crazy scientist. In fact, that might be an understatement."

Finding the switch, Ronnie depressed it. A confirmation beep sounded from the wall. The secret wall slid back remarkably fast; not at all like the stone wall that existed in the Shin-Ra Mansion. Then again, this door _was _many years after the one at the Mansion. In fact, its sole purposed was to hide Anubis—the alias by which Saan went when she was dressed up in her fancy, ancient suit. The wall itself had been added when Anubis was declared to remain within the Shin-Ra building so that Hojo could test her himself _and_ regularly.

Inside the small recess of the wall was a glass tube filled with Mako and, floating lifelessly in that, was Saan. The collection of gasps coming from the AVALANCHE members Ronnie had expected. It's not every day that one sees a metal, Egyptian god floating in a green, glowing liquid. Ronnie frowned a little as he looked up at his best friend.

The AVALANCHE members made their way around the specimen tank in the center of the room towards where Ronnie stood. He let his eyes linger on Saan before he turned his head to look at the others. All of them were surprised. Barret seemed slightly disgusted and cautious. Aerith was once again sad. Tifa seemed at a loss, too many emotions conflicting with one another so that nothing really showed through. Cloud…Cloud's expression was hard to define.

His brows knitted together in confusion for a brief moment, as if he were trying to recall something; and, then, being unable to, they relaxed and his face became blank. Red XIII's expression was hard to describe as well, but that was because he wasn't human and Ronnie wasn't exactly a zoologist. Barret whistled low.

"Damn…" he muttered.

"Yeah," Ronnie replied. "Now you can see why I was so eager for your help."

"It's just glass," Cloud spoke up, stating the obvious. And the obvious always needed to be stated. "Why couldn't you have broken it yourself and freed her?"

"You do have a good point," Ronnie replied. "However, then the guards would have come to kill me, and Saan would have been placed back inside the glowing tube, and all my efforts would have been in vain. No, see, my plan was to free you, have you dispatch the guards, free Saan, and then we would help you guys destroy Shin-Ra. I had not taken into consideration that a science experiment would break free and start slaughtering people."

"You want to destroy Shin-Ra?" Tifa asked curiously. "I thought you only wanted to quit."

"Same difference," Ronnie said. "There's no such thing as leaving Shin-Ra for a Turk or a SOLDIER. You know too many secrets. You either work here for the rest of your life, or they kill you. Nothing in between. Which means, to quit, I'd have to either die or kill them. And I have no desire to die just yet."

"That can't be true," Aerith muttered quietly as she looked down at the floor. She suddenly shook her head, her braid swishing back and forth lazily, and then looked up at Ronnie, determination in her eyes. "I mean, Cloud's with us, and he was in SOLDIER."

"Yeah!" Barret chimed in. "First Class, right, Spiky?"

Cloud merely grunted in agreement, his eyes still fixed on Saan, his face blank. Ronnie perked up a little. Another First had survived? And he was there with them? What were the odds!

"Really?" He asked hopefully, "Did you know Saan?"

"What?" Cloud asked, snapping out of his haze and glancing at Ronnie.

"Saan," Ronnie motioned to the floating woman behind him. "She was a SOLDIER First Class, as well."

"No, I didn't know her."

"You sure?" Ronnie asked, frowning thoughtfully. "Maybe you started after… I mean she used to work with—"

"Look, I think I'd remember someone like _that_," Cloud replied snappishly.

Ronnie's frown deepened, but he let the subject drop. Cloud's eyes had already returned to the tank. Ronnie found it odd that a SOLDIER First wouldn't know a fellow colleague. The Turks knew about each other; quite extensively, actually. But, perhaps Cloud _had_ joined after the Nibelheim Incident. Ronnie noticed Tifa fidgeting with her hands, but then he shrugged and returned to the issue. How was he going to get Saan out of the tank without injuring her? Perhaps he could use the Materia within Saan's staff…

He wasn't left long to think before Barret decided to take initiative.

"All right, then, let's get this show on the road!" He said, raising his gun arm and aiming at the glass tube.

Ronnie's mouth dropped in horror. He threw himself at the darker man, desperately pushing the gun away from his best friend. Barret was surprised at his sudden movement and was temporarily knocked off balance.

"Are you insane!" Ronnie screeched. "We want to _free_ her, not _kill_ her! That suit of armor of hers is flimsier than you think. It definitely can't take a hail of gunfire from a machine gun!"

Just as he opened his mouth again, to say more objections, he saw Cloud draw his sword out of the corner of his eye. Ronnie's eyes widened as his head snapped towards the blond. However, the look on Cloud's face was one of shock and confusion instead of determination. He was looking at the tank. Ronnie turned quickly to look at it. He gasped.

The eyes on Saan's helmet—the incasing of metal that so resembled Anubis—were glowing with an eerie, yellow light. And her left hand, which had usually remained motionless by her side, was poised before her, her palm facing outward. Ronnie's eyes widened.

The next chain of events happened in a blur. Black streaked from the clawed hand (where had _they_ come from?) of the suit. Saan's hand flew forward, slamming against the glass as the black energy, too, hit it. The awful sound of glass shattering and a small explosion had Ronnie covering his head and ears with his arms; Aerith screamed. The wind from the explosion hit him, causing Ronnie to sway a little, but it wasn't enough to knock him off his feet. He was barely paying attention to the sound of the dull alarm, or the red flashing lights that pulsed in warning, or the fact that, miraculously, the shards of glass from the tank had missed him.

Shuddering a little, Ronnie removed his arms from his head and looked towards the tank. There stood, for the first time in five years, his best friend. Saan. Anubis. And she was bent over a little, her arms dangling loosely even though her shoulders were tensed, and her legs apart in some sort of stance. She was breathing heavily, probably because causing the explosion had taken a lot out of her, or probably because she was finally actually allowed to breathe air. Maybe it was both.

The protective barrier that had erected itself the day Hojo had tried to touch dissipated into a black mist that swirled back into the jackal-eared helmet, exposing her neck and the lower portion of her face. Yes, she did seem to be gasping for air, but she also appeared to be extremely agitated—furious.

"_Where is she?_" She growled.

And Ronnie wasn't entirely sure if she had said it out loud, or if he'd merely heard it in his head.

.

.

.

**A/N: -snicker- I wonder how many of you that read this prologue have not read the first of the series and are scratching your head, wondering just who the hell Ronnie or Saan are, and what Anubis has to do with anything. –evil grin- I highly suggest you go back and read the original, or you'll only be more confused as this continues.**

**HELLO, MY FANS! Yep, I'm alive. Very much so. My fall hibernation has come to an end as the semester has. Finals are next week, and then I will be free until…sometime in January, I don't remember. I didn't have an Author's Note at the beginning for I wanted to make fun of the newcomers. –cackles-**

**This is to be the only chapter written in third person, and from Ronnie's perspective. I didn't want to jump straight into Saan's perspective after these events because ya'll would have been left scratching your heads wondering what the hell happened. I thought it was an interesting perspective to take upon opening the new arc. It's also amusing removing myself from my body to reflect on just who I am. :D.**

**I've been reading The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice these past few days, and Lestat's inspired my style just a bit. I'd like to think it's for the better. I like my vampires forty percent gay, what about you guys? Also in the inspiration department we have: This is War, the album by Thirty Seconds to Mars (yes, the WHOLE album); Minutes to Midnight by Linkin Park; "Son of Chaos" and "Sephiroth's Wake," two remixes of "Shinra Company" and "Trail of Blood" respectively—look them up on Youtube; "Birth of Mewtwo" because you can't have people exploding out of liquid tanks without thinking about Mewtwo; and, finally, "Hello Again" by Lostprophets. The song that inspired the title. Listen to it. NOW! Yes, all my inspiration comes from music.**

**Also, special thanks to my new Betas—you know who you are.**


	2. Son of Chaos

**A/N: -drags self away from **_**The Legend of Zelda**_**- And so I'm back, from outta space~! OH GOD, MY EARDRUMS. Note: Turn down volume when ya plug in earbuds. Have to get back into the zone of writing, hold on. . . . Ok, there we go.**

**Kudos: SrgntDrew, Mennis-chan, Dreylen, Crimson Solitude of the Moon, S. Voltaire, CarmesiCaos, Ultimate, Blue Fire Lily, Fyrflame, MyDarkSideHasAWayOfHerOwn, and RJ Arkright (who is, in fact, Ronnie).**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII. I do however own Saan, Ronnie, and this plot. Well…the changes I've made to the original plot…You mean what I know!**

**I got sick with some unknown illness (most likely sinus infection) towards the end. Illness sucks. –curls up in fetal position-**

.

.

Darkness, darkness everywhere. Infinity spent within the darkness with only a shrill ringing in my head to accompany me and the constant reminder of my biggest mistake. The noise prevented me from thinking. Not that I needed to think. The images and voices that visited me every once in a while, though horribly distorted, kept me there—in existence.

And so I floated in a sea of vague thoughts that weren't my own. My mind felt as if it were in a fog. Only once did I almost break free of that sound and those thoughts, only to forget what triggered it or what I'd done. I just knew that I had reacted to something, like when a person wakes up and knows he or she has dreamed, but can't remember what that dream was about. That was the way it was for all the images and words that came to me.

However, in one moment, that all changed. It seemed so sudden. The noise was there one second, persistent as always: loud, shrill, enough to drive a monk insane. Then the next, it was diminishing, moving away from me. I think I felt my soul sigh in relief. But then it came back! Inwardly, I cringed. I hated that sound. I knew that I always had, but I couldn't think as to why. Relief came again when the noise moved on, away from me to leave me in peace.

With that force gone from my mind, I was able to think for the first time in what felt like eternity. I wondered where I was; what was going on; what had happened. I tried to sense what was around me but quickly realized I couldn't, for I wasn't really awake yet.

Then came the voices. Those voices weren't the ones from before. The new voices were real. I strained to listen to them.

_Jenova. Specimen._ The voice was deep and I couldn't recognize it. However, I did know the topic of which it spoke. I felt my lips turn downward into a frown. It was a strange sensation.

_Wait!_ I knew that voice, it was Ronnie's. So Ronnie was fine. That was good. How did he know where I was though? The last thing I remembered was Nibelheim and that strange plane that I'd met Anubis in.

Ronnie's voice continued for a bit. It was joined briefly by a loud, boisterous voice that I didn't know.

_Hojo._ I knew that name. Hated that man, I did. I wanted to kill him. He deserved to die. I couldn't say that about many people—I didn't like hating—but he was one of the exceptions.

_Glass—broken it yourself—freed her. _My frown worsened. I knew _that_ voice. It was so familiar, but I couldn't place it! I was growing frustrated.

The talking continued. There was a conversation going on outside my dark world, and as it went on, more and more familiar voices joined in. My mind worked trying to remember who the voices belonged to.

_SOLDIER_. Then it hit me. Zack and Cloud. One of the voices was Cloud's. It sounded deeper than what I remembered, but not by much. Two of the others were Aerith and Tifa. Cloud, Aerith and Tifa were all together, but why? And where was Zack?

Then, almost instantly, I remembered.

I felt myself knocked back by the memories. The time the voices and the images had been the sharpest and the noise had been quieted. Even back then I had only seen, or sensed, bits and pieces of what had happened: the running—the fighting—the Army—the gunshots—The End.

He'd died. Zack had died. They had killed him—Shin-Ra had killed him. Why? I felt the emotions all over again. What had he done? Why did Shin-Ra feel the need to kill him? He hadn't done anything! It was Sephiroth, not Zack! Why Zack? Sorrow. Distress. Confusion.

No, Sephiroth wasn't all to blame. Jenova. She was also responsible. She had gotten inside his head; she had gotten inside my head. Hojo. Hojo had told Sephiroth his mother was Jenova. The President. He had sent Sephiroth on that stupid assignment in Nibelheim. The President had funded the entire fucking Project! He'd told the Army to go after Zack! It was all their fault. If they hadn't done what they did Sephiroth wouldn't have— Zack wouldn't have— Disgust. Hate. Rage.

It was rage that won out in the long run, a rage that was stronger than what I felt at the destruction of Nibelheim. Oh, they would pay. _They would pay_. I'd make sure of it. They'd unleashed the Hound of Hell. If Shin-Ra thought Genesis was bad, the Company hadn't seen anything yet. Hell hath no fury…

But Shin-Ra would have to wait; there was a bigger fish to fry. The ringing in my ears made sense now that I could think and remember. It was Jenova. Jenova was nearby…and she was awake—moving around like she owned the place. First thing was first, though; I had to open my eyes and get the hell out of wherever I was.

Opening my eyes was a mistake. I had been in darkness for so long that, when I opened them, I was met with blinding light. I ignored the pain as my pupils contracted and my retinas screamed in agony. And when my sense of sight was restored, so were the other four.

I could _feel_ the closeness of whatever was containing me. It felt an awful lot like a tube. I was also floating in some sort of liquid. At least, I perceived it as a liquid at first. I quickly realized that, even if I was floating in a tube-thing, I was still able to breathe. Unable to figure out how I could be in a liquid and a gas at the same time, I marked it up as unimportant.

Giving myself over to my _blind_ rage, I used the only offensive Materia I had on me at the time—Death. I briefly prayed that the spell would not ricochet off the surface I was about to slam it against and hit me instead; but, then I chocked that up as unimportant as well. With as much strength that I had, I thrust my arm forward, palm out, and slammed it against the surface while at the same time casting my deadly spell.

The surface my hand came in contact with shattered easily enough; it had to be glass. I was rewarded with the sound of a small explosion accompanied with the little tinkling noise of glass hitting the ground and a woman's scream. I must have scared the poor dear.

I half-fell half-jumped out of the tank I'd been kept in. My eyesight was improving steadily, and around me I could make out the individual shapes of five people and a red blob on the floor. I didn't care who they were—though I knew most of them—or why they were standing around me. No, all I cared about was Jenova. Since I'd left my little prison, the noise had returned, only it was very faint and not nearly as annoying as it usually was.

"_Where is she?_" I growled as my head and eyes worked on clearing themselves of the lingering fog.

No one answered me, of course, and as I waited for someone to, the wail of an alarm slipped past the Darnell Stint and into my brain. I slapped my hands over my ears, furiously snapping my head from side to side trying to find an off switch. I could pinpoint the annoying, red, flashing lights well enough, but not the damn switch.

"Saan?" Ronnie's voice asked me, quivering a little.

"Dayum!" Shouted some man I did not know.

Blinking, I forced my head to stop spinning—perhaps snapping my head from side to side was a bad idea—and leaned back a little to focus on the speaker. Tall, African-American…Black…Colored…whatever, white shirt, tan vest, gun arm (interesting), big boots, big muscles. _Mr. T_? I was so thrown off for a second that I'd almost forgotten my situation and spouted out, "I pity tha foo'!"

However, a certain blond, spiky-headed man drew my attention away from Gun Man, and I was able to choke down my words. My eyes narrowed at him. I knew it was Cloud, but he seemed different. Not only had he aged and lost that once boyish face of his, but he was wearing a SOLDIER First uniform and had a sword drawn ready to use it against me.

And not just any sword! No, he _had_ to be using the Buster Sword. That was not his sword, that was Zack's sword. Unless, Zack had given it to him, which was completely plausible because Angeal had given Zack the sword when he… I twitched involuntarily as I tried to smother those feelings. There was a time and place for everything but then was not the time to mourn. I had to find out what the hell was going on.

Cloud was glaring at me, which I also found strange, but ignored as my eyes scanned the rest of the crew. Yes, there was Tifa, the brunette with endowments who was still wearing ridiculous clothing; she was shocked more than anything. Then beside her was Aerith, the little flower girl from the Slums. Nothing had really changed much with her, except now she was wearing a disgusting amount of pink and was holding a rod. Aerith looked like she was handling the situation well.

Scanning back towards the black man, my eyes fell to the floor and noticed that the red blob from before was, in fact, a red lion creature. With a disturbingly Charmander-like tail. Right, then.

"Saan?" Ronnie asked again, sounding a little more worried than he had before.

I turned to finally face him. He'd changed his hair. It was cut into one those annoying fauxhawks. I hated those things, and he knew it. He, too, looked…older. In fact, Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith all looked older. I didn't want to know why that was, but I had a funny feeling I'd already figured it out; I wished that I hadn't.

"Ronnie," I replied calmly. "You look…_old_."

Ronnie smiled a little, "Enjoy your break?"

"What break?" I asked.

The question had come out sounding 'cool', but it was an honest question. I had no idea what break he was talking about. I desperately wanted to know.

"You don't remember anything?" Ronnie asked, but it was evident by his voice that he had expected as much.

"Oh, I remember plenty," I snarled. I lolled my head to the side and looked at Cloud, "Hello, Cloud."

The reaction he gave me I had not been expecting. I had expected him to go, "Oh, it really is Saan. She hasn't lost her mind like Sephiroth. I'll just put my sword away now." Instead, what I got was a startled look, a slight lowering of the Buster Sword in his hesitation, and then an unnerving, heated glare as his hands tightened around the hilt of the sword. In response to the hostility given off by the boy, I felt my body shift into a defensive stance. My shoulders tensed as I lowered my head.

How dare he threaten me! …Or, that's what I would have thought had I not known the boy. I knew that Cloud would not threaten me without a valid reason. All I had to do was figure out that reason before he lopped off my head.

"Who are you?" he growled. "And how do you know me?"

"Who am—" I stuttered, whole body immediately going slack from shock.

_AM I HONESTLY THAT FORGETTABLE?_ I screeched to myself. First Zack, long ago, then Jerry, now Cloud? Surely to God Rufus still remembered me.

I faced Ronnie with a stunned face (though all he could see was my slack jaw), about to complain that there was something wrong with 'you people'. Ronnie was staring back at me in similar surprise.

"You know him?" He asked innocently. "He said that he didn't know you…"

"You don't—" I said, once again blown out of the water.

The rest of the sentence should have read, "know him?" However, I silenced myself again. I remembered that Ronnie had only met Cloud once, and even then it was a brief encounter that only lasted a day. Most of that day, Cloud had been wearing his helmet. Given Ronnie, it wasn't unfathomable for him to have forgotten the blond.

But that did not excuse Cloud for forgetting me. I had encountered him many more times than Ronnie; the boy had seen Anubis before; I was there the day Sephiroth lost his mind, massacred anybody who stood in his way, burned the boy's childhood home. How the fuck could he forget!

Tifa! Tifa had to remember me! I glanced towards her, the last remaining spark that held the memory of Anubis sans Ronnie. However, when I looked at the girl, she was avoiding my gaze. She actually had quite a decent staring contest going on with the wall off to the side. It didn't take me long to realize that she had sided with Cloud's warped memory, and that she was in no way going to acknowledge me.

In exasperation, I grabbed at my hair, pulled, took a deep breath, and then let it out through clenched teeth. _What is going on!_ I wanted to screech, but that would have been counter-productive. I would have only achieved making a fool of myself, and perhaps goading Cloud into thrusting forward with the Buster Sword.

So, I settled for dropping my arms to the side, letting all frustration go, and saying in as calm as a voice as I could muster:

"Honestly, how do I not know who you are? Look at that sword your carrying and that outfit. I'm not surprised you can't recognize me for what I am, seeing as how my outfit is a little…different…but I'm in the same boat as you, regardless."

Inwardly I wanted to shoot myself. I was no better than Tifa for not correcting him, but unlike Tifa I wasn't doing it out of blind affection. I wanted to get to the bottom of what was happening and to do that I needed to figure out, behind the scenes, what had happened to Cloud. If I confronted him head on, the consequences could be disastrous for both of us.

My last memory of the boy was his crumpled, bleeding body on the stairs of the Nibelheim reactor. What had happened after that, I couldn't imagine. My brain worked trying to come up with plausible scenarios, each one tying into the images that had come to me regarding Zack's fate. Shin-Ra was responsible for his death, which meant he had done something to either piss them off, or simply knew too much and tried to leave. Other than that, I was drawing blanks.

When I returned from my thoughts, I realized everyone was staring at me. Even Cloud had lowered his sword (his arm probably got tired), and all of them were giving me worried or confused looks.

Ronnie hesitantly leaned forward, "Are you okay?"

"No," I replied casually. "There's an annoying alarm going off that's driving me insane. Also, I have about five strangers staring at me like I have two heads. Other than that, I guess everything's just peachy." I smiled sardonically and held out my right hand, "Now, would you kindly give me my weapon so I can take care of the first problem; and, then, I'll take care of Jenova."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute!" The big, Colored man exclaimed, waving his arms around sporadically.

I figured it was his attempt to get everyone's attention—as if his voice wouldn't—and decided to humor him. Ronnie was frozen, his arm still slightly bent as he tried to hand me my staff.

"What do you mean you're in the same boat as Cloud?" The man asked, obviously confused, "And why are you after Jenova?"

I blinked slowly, suppressing my urge to be a smart ass, and replied, "I'm a First. Therefore, we are in the same boat. As for Jenova," I smiled, "I'd like to repay her for a little something that happened in the past. A lot of 'something's."

"Why should we help you?" Cloud interjected. "How do we know you're not a spy or something?"

"I was locked inside a Mako tube, unable to get out, and therefore had no connection with Shin-Ra until you woke me up with your talking. How could I possibly be a spy?" I retorted. "As for why you should help me…"

I trailed off. Taking a step forward, I snatched my staff from Ronnie's limp hand. Those with weapons instinctively and almost immediately prepared themselves for any danger. I found their actions highly amusing because of how wrong they had interpreted my own, but ignored them. Rotating my torso, I aimed at the button that was barely visible on the wall, hidden beside the secret compartment that held the tube, and fired a shot of Thundaga.

The lightning spell crackled loudly, polarizing the air around our tiny group, and managed to cause a small explosion upon impact. The blast of air that came with it didn't faze me, since I was accustomed to blowing shit up, however behind me there rose a collection of meeps and gasps along with a 'whoa'. I was pretty sure the meep had come from Ronnie, the gasps sounded feminine, and the 'whoa' had most definitely come from the big guy with the gun.

"Thundaga," Cloud said plainly. "Impressive. I guess you are SOLDIER. Why did Shin-Ra lock you up like that?"

I turned back to face the blond, pathetically glad that he was actually talking to me and not threatening me. Why was it that whenever I had a badass moment, I immediately had to turn around and think or feel something completely corny and sentimental? Inwardly, I cringed at myself.

"Because…" I paused, "I guess I just knew too much."

Without another word, I began to walk towards the elevator that would lead towards the upper floors. During our little conversations, I was able to take in everything around me, including the strange blood trail that traveled past a dead guy on the floor and towards the elevator. I took an educated guess and surmised that was where Jenova had gone. Ronnie stepped aside so that I could walk by. Cloud stubbornly refused to move, I stubbornly refused to alter my course, and luckily I had an inch to spare between the two of us as I walked past him.

"Why wouldn't Shin-Ra kill you, if that were the case?" Cloud asked. From the direction of his voice, I could tell he was watching me.

"Because—" Ronnie tried to explain.

"Okay!" I cut him off. I turned back around, "Enough about my life. We have all the time in the world to ask questions _later_. Right now, the main problem we have is a homicidal freak roaming the halls slaughtering everyone in her path. Now, you can continue to stand there and debate whether or not you trust me and if you're going to help me, or if you're just going to turn around and leave, I don't give a damn either way. But _I'm_ going to exact a little revenge on the assholes that ruined my life with or without you. Good-bye."

Spinning on my heels, I faced the elevator once more and strode quickly towards it. I honestly didn't care what the group chose to do. I had every intention of chasing down Jenova, killing the freaking bitch if I could, and perhaps working my way to Hojo and the President while I was at it. If the group decided to go with me, they could either help or hinder depending on their fighting level. Aerith, the poor girl, certainly wouldn't stand a chance. Tifa I didn't give a damn about. Mr. T and Red were iffy at best. Cloud was probably the only one out of the group that had a bit of real fighting experience. Ronnie… Was a no, a very big no. I made it about halfway to the elevator before I was stopped again by Cloud's voice.

"Wait," he called out.

I waited, taking a deep breath as I told myself that no matter how annoying people could be it was not polite to stab them. Turning my head slowly to see over my shoulder, I was a little surprised to see him walking towards me, the group following like loyal dogs. He placed his sword on his back. When he was even with me he continued.

"I don't know what the deal is with you or Jenova, but I do have a score to settle with Shin-Ra and its president. I guess we have that much in common. And your Materia could help us out in the long run. …We'll help you, for now."

I smiled, "Good. Makes my life easier."

—**FFVII—**

Whilst on the elevator, it was revealed to me by Ronnie that the people I had just allied myself with were AVALANCHE. My initial response was to glare, since as a SOLDIER I had fought against the group before, but then I remembered that I knew three out of the five members and they weren't the type to senselessly slaughter people… At least they hadn't been the last time I'd seen them.

I knew some time had passed since the last time I'd seen the waking world, but I was hesitant to ask Ronnie how long I'd been out for fear that something else would get leaked out to Cloud and the others. I didn't know what that something was, but I was taking no chances regardless. I planned to ask Ronnie later when we could get away from the others.

Also in the elevator I learned the names of the AVALANCHE members. Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith were no brainers, though Ronnie didn't know that, and the other two were Red XIII and Barret. I was quite relieved to be able to call Barret something other than a remark about his skin color or his resemblance to an American wrestler/actor. The group apparently already knew me from Ronnie's introduction just before I bust out of my holding tank with a vengeance. It was strange to be called 'Saan' while wearing the Anubis suit but with my allegiance to Shin-Ra dead and buried I had no reason to care that my alias wasn't being used.

Once out of the elevator, the trail of blood continued straight ahead before curving towards the left and down an adjacent hallway. Red XIII bounded off to follow it as the rest of us scattered, seeking the personal space that had been violated while crammed in the elevator, and then we followed after him. At the curve of the hallway, another body lay. I frowned as I looked down at the Shin-Ra employee.

"Poor sap never seen it comin'," I muttered. Ronnie hummed in affirmation.

"It looks like it leads up…" Red commented.

"The only thing that's up above this is President Shin-Ra," I replied.

Ronnie's head snapped to me, his eyes slightly wide, "You don't think…"

" 'You don't think,' what?" Cloud asked.

Everyone's attention had been drawn to us. I leaned on my staff and shrugged.

"If the only thing up is the President, and the monster is heading up… I mean, not that I really care what happens to the fat man, but," I trailed off.

Some of the gears clicked faster than others, but it wasn't long before each one of the AVALANCHE members got what I was hinting at. If Jenova was killing everyone in her path, the President was on the hit list. That would take away from AVALANCHE's desire of getting the revenge they wanted; and, to a lesser extent, my own desire to skewer him. But, it was also an opportunity. Jenova would be stuck at the top floor, unable to go back down without going through our group first. I hoped she kept going up.

"Shit!" Barret suddenly exclaimed as he bolted down the hallway, following the trail before he disappeared into the next hallway, the automatic door shutting behind him.

"Barret, wait!" Tifa called after him before she too began to sprint, "What if you're ambushed!"

Red sighed, "I guess we'd better follow them before they run into trouble."

Cloud nodded in agreement and the group resumed its trek. Inside the small hallway, the blood trail continued. By that time, I had stopped paying attention to it. What caught my attention instead were the giant claw marks on the left wall. They were massive and deep. As we continued to wind our way through the level, I noticed more of them. I sucked on my bottom lip as I lost myself in my thoughts again. _Somebody_ wasn't happy. I wondered why.

After exiting the stairwell on Floor 69, the group took a right. Waiting for us were Tifa and Barret. Apparently the girl had managed to convince the man to stop. Neither one of them looked particularly happy. Cloud also picked up on their expressions.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"There are three more bodies up ahead," Tifa replied uneasily.

"This damn thing's killin' more Shin-Ra than we are!" Barret growled.

"I don't like this, Cloud," Tifa continued, "I don't think we should continue."

"What?" Cloud asked, genuinely surprised.

"Oh, come_ on_," I drawled, "What's the matter? _Scared?_"

"Shouldn't I be?" Tifa asked defensively.

"No," I smirked, "you should be _terrified._"

"I don't know, Saan. I'm kinda with Tifa on this one," Ronnie said as he stood to my right. "I really didn't plan on dying today…I'd like to live."

I faced him and stared blankly. He wasn't supposed to side with the other guys, he was supposed to side with me! I was his friend, not Cowgirl! Barret crossed his arms (or the equivalent) and looked at Tifa.

"Come on, we're stronger than any stupid experiment Hojo can come up with. We beat that one he sicked on us when we tried to save Aerith didn't we?" He asked. "Besides, we outnumber that thing—" here he paused to count, "—seven to one! We have the upper hand."

"Have you been counting how many bodies we've passed?" Tifa countered. "Cloud?"

I turned my attention to Cloud. He was obviously conflicted. On one hand, he wanted to continue and had probably psyched himself up to do just that, on the other, his childhood friend was telling him not to do it. And I knew from personal experience that 'childhood friend' held a lot more sway—especially when it involved a woman doing the persuading. Women were very good at persuading. Well, two could play that game.

"Think of it this way," I began, "if you leave and allow this creature to go free, you risk it getting out and hurting innocent people. You might not care about the Shin-Ra employees, but what if it goes after civilians? I don't think you good-natured, save-the-world types can stomach something like that, can you?"

The expression on each AVALANCHE member's face darkened. Tifa and Aerith looked saddened, while Barret just seemed furious. Cloud was caught between the two. Glancing at Ronnie, I noticed he was also slightly depressed. I had missed something.

"She has a point, Cloud," Aerith spoke up timidly. Her voice was as quiet as I remembered it. "I don't… I don't want anything else to happen like what happened to Sector 7."

Everybody but Red cringed.

"What happened to Sector 7?" I asked cautiously.

Ronnie frowned, "The President ordered its destruction…"

"…in a stupid—" Cloud tried to finish, but Barret interrupted him.

"That bastard killed all those people just to get at us!" The man shouted, slamming his fist angrily against the wall behind him.

"He did _what_?" I growled through clenched teeth.

"Yeah," Ronnie replied weakly. "He ordered the Turks to set a bomb charge on the pillar holding up the Sector 7 Plate and…well…the mission was a success."

I literally vibrated in anger. The mere thought of the President attacking civilians to get at the terrorist group was enough to piss me off, but to think about all those that had lost their lives in the Plate's fall—actually _fathom_ it—was almost too much. How had it felt, to suddenly hear an explosion, look up, and see the sky falling? Or to feel the ground shake, knock you to your feet, and then feel it drop? Tightening my hand around my staff, I sprinted across the large, open room, following the blood trail.

"Saan!" Ronnie shouted after me, his footfalls telling me that he was following.

New plan: Old Fucker Must _Die_.

I ignored the desks; the two bodies lying on the polished floor; the one lying on the right-hand stairs, away from the trail. Before I knew it, I had cleared the purple, carpeted staircase and was rushing across the 70th Floor. I was not so blinded by rage that I did not see the way the President was sitting in his chair behind his huge desk. Actually, he wasn't sitting at all; he was slumped over with a sword sticking out of his back. I quickly slammed on the brakes, sliding just a bit as I did so.

"Dammit!" I hissed.

The rest of the gang was right on my heels, apparently, and rushed towards the desk to confront the President. Only to discover what I had discovered myself. Barret, who'd 'drawn' his weapon, shook his head in shock and quickly dropped the gun-arm.

"He's dead… The leader of Shin-Ra, Inc. is dead…" He breathed.

"I wanted to kill him!" I snapped, stomping my foot like an angry child.

Tifa ran around the desk to get a better look at his wounds. At least, I thought that was what she was doing, but when she stood beside the President, she was actually inspecting the sword sticking out of his back. When I looked at it closely, I understood why.

"Then this sword must be…!" She gasped.

"Sephiroth's!" Cloud exclaimed.

I frowned and turned my head slightly to the right. Ronnie was standing beside me, trying to catch his breath from the brief run I'd made him take. He caught my movement and looked at me in question. After knowing each other for as long as we had, he knew that I was trying to say something and say it discreetly.

"That's not Sephiroth's sword," I whispered lowly.

Ronnie blinked in surprise, looked quickly at the sword, then back at me, "It's not?"

"No," I muttered, casting my eyes back to the blade, "the Masamune has a blue hilt. That one is red."

"Meaning?"

"It's a cheap imitation." _In more ways than one._

"…Sephiroth is alive?" Tifa asked, bringing my attention away from the sword and to her.

"…Looks like it," Cloud replied, "Only Sephiroth can use that sword."

Barret looked at Cloud, "Who cares who did it! This is the end of Shin-Ra now!"

I frowned and looked at him, "You are _extremely_ naïve if you think th— PAH!"

Looking back, there are a lot of things I could have done other than point and say, 'pah'. Like, I could have said, "Look, a fat man named Palmer is standing behind that pillar over there." However, I did not have that kind of time, and so I had to settle with 'pah'. I wasn't the only one to have spotted the tiny man, as Aerith had also jumped and made a surprised grunt.

Cloud zeroed in on him quite quickly—I credited the use of my finger—and readied himself to catch the man. After all, since his cover had been blown, the only thing left for Palmer to do was run. And, sure enough, the head of the Space Department bolted from his hiding place with the determination of a mule. He also had the brains of one, as he was quickly snatched by both Cloud and Barret.

Palmer squeaked and started to stutter as he quaked with fear, "P-p-p-please, don't kill me!"

"What happened?" Cloud demanded.

Palmer looked up at him, "Se…Sephiroth. Sephiroth came."

"Did you see him? Did you see Sephiroth?"

Palmer looked away, "Yeah, I saw him! I saw him with my own eyes!"

"You _really_ saw him?"

Palmer looked back at him, "Uh! Would I lie to you at a time like this! And I heard his voice too! Um, he was saying something about not letting us have the Promised Land."

Tifa spoke, "Then what? Does that mean that the Promised Land really exists and that Sephiroth's here to save it from Shin-Ra?"

_Ha!_ Was what I wanted to say, but I cleverly kept quiet. Well, it was quite possible that Sephiroth wanted to save the Promised Land since he believed himself to be an Ancient, the Promised Land rightfully his, and Shin-Ra a big pain in the ass that needed to die, but what had killed President Shin-Ra had not been Sephiroth. Of that I was 90% sure. The others didn't know that Jenova could alter her genetic structure to morph into different things; I did. The blood trail oh so conveniently disappeared at the top of the stairs without a drop being spilt beyond it. It didn't take a rocket scientist (or Hojo) to figure out those implications.

Wait.

"You know about the Promised Land?" I asked, looking at Tifa in surprise.

"_You _know about the Promised Land?" Aerith echoed.

I frowned at her, but then again, she _was_ an Ancient and therefore _should_ know. Did the others know who she was? Just what all had I missed?

"You know what, never mind, long story," I replied, waving my hand in dismissal.

Barret turned his confused face from me to Cloud, "So he's a good guy then?"

"Save the Promised Land? A good guy? No way!" Cloud replied as he shook his head. "It's not that simple! I know him! Sephiroth's mission is different!"

Wait, so blondie remembered Sephiroth, most likely remembered the fate of his town, but he did not remember me or my involvement… What. The. Hell. Either Cloud had the best selective memory in the history of mankind on TWO worlds, or something was horribly messed up with his head.

Both Cloud and Barret suddenly grunted in surprise as Palmer squirmed and managed to free himself from their grasp. I watched as he fled. He had quite the unique way of running. I could have stopped him, of course, since Ronnie and I were the closest ones to the stairs, but Palmer wasn't a big interest to me. The Space Department had nothing to do with the transgressions I'd experienced, so I wasn't about to waste my time on the little weasel.

The sound of helicopter blades gained my attention and I turned to look out the giant glass windows that overlooked the city. Everyone else was staring as well. Helicopters in Shin-Ra meant one of two things: The Turks or a high-ranking official—sometimes it was both. The particular aircraft that was descending onto the helipad outside was a different model from those used by The Turks for missions, which meant that it was most likely the latter.

"Rufus!" Barret shouted, spazzing a little, "Fuck! I forgot about him!"

I smiled pleasantly. Ah, Rufus. How long had it been? Then I frowned as I realized I honestly didn't know how long it had been. It was a fact that was starting to frustrate me. Ronnie whimpered a little beside me, and I had a good idea as to why.

"Who's that?" Tifa asked, looking back at Barret.

"Vice President Rufus," the man explained. "The President's son."

"I only know his name," Red commented. He wasn't a very talkative soul.

"I heard that he's been assigned somewhere else for a long time…" Barret added.

Really? I thought. That was an interesting tidbit of information. I wondered why that was. If memory served correctly, Rufus had been spending more time away from the Shin-Ra building when I was still in active duty. Maybe he'd done something to tick off his father. Maybe Daddy had discovered his son's dealings with AVALANCHE. Ah well.

"_I've _heard that no one's seen him bleed or cry," Aerith muttered.

"I wonder what type of person he is…" Tifa added.

Following the strange overuse of everyone's opinions, I couldn't help but say, "Well, _I_ know from personal experience that he's an egotistical asshole who only thinks of himself."

"I am _so _dead…" Ronnie finished.

"Well, maybe we should go and introduce ourselves," Cloud said.

He received a few nods in response and the group ran outside. Cloud was leading, followed by Aerith, Tifa, Barret, Red XIII, myself, with Ronnie bringing up the rear. The poor guy was trying his best not to be noticed, but his attempts were for not as we all spaced apart in front of the windows and faced the Vice President and Palmer. Rufus was talking to the fat man, getting the latest info from him.

"So…" Rufus replied. "So Sephiroth was actually here." He paused as Palmer fled once again and then turned to face us. "…By the way, who are you guys?"

I deactivated my suit immediately, ignored the surprise of those around me, and waved vigorously at the young man, a big, dopey, open-mouthed grin on my face, "Hello! My name is Saan, and you _so totally_ know who I am!"

I received many stares of, "What the hell…" My fake valley girl accent probably made them fear for my sanity even more, but that was what I had aimed for.

"Ah, yes, you," Rufus replied, completely unfazed. "So you're alive as well? Two SOLDIERs back from the dead in one day, talk about a miracle." Rufus' attention then turned towards Ronnie, "And I'm not at all surprised you're with her." His glance then traveled over the AVALANCHE members, "But I know I don't know _you_."

Cloud, being the designated leader, felt obligated to go first, "I'm Cloud, former SOLDIER First Class!"

I schooled my features to keep from giving away how I felt about that statement. If Rufus had been involved with SOLDIER, he would have known that Cloud was lying.

"I'm from AVALANCHE!" Barret exclaimed, punching the air to show off his manly strength. Honestly, why did people do that?

"Same here!" Tifa added.

"…a flower girl from the slums."

"…a research specimen."

Rufus shrugged nonchalantly, "What a crew."

"I know right?" I agreed.

And what a crew we were! A former SOLDIER First Class that had not a trace of Mako in her and that wielded a suit full of Jenova cells as well as a trident-like staff that sported a fancy, deadly diamond; a former Turk that couldn't wield a gun to save his life and spent most of his time not knowing what was going on (when that's what Turks were _known for_); a former Army Grunt that was confusing himself for a SOLDIER First; a young woman who wore scant clothing and used her fists to talk; a flower girl who once dated a dear friend of mine and probably couldn't hurt a flea; a red lion-dog that could talk; and a big, Colored man who strikingly resembled Mr. T and had a gun on his arm.

Every one of those strange people was after Shin-Ra for some reason, and so there we all stood facing the now-President of the biggest company and government on the planet determined to bring them all down. Well, ok, I didn't particularly want to take Shin-Ra down as I was a bit of a realist and knew that that was pretty fucking impossible with all the people that resided in the company, but I did still want to take out Hojo and Jenova. It was in my best interest if I played along with the others.

If our little group had existed on Earth and tried whatever the hell Cloud and gang had planned, they would have been laughed at into oblivion…

Rufus didn't much seem to mind the presence of the people who wished him harm as he began to pace around the area.

"Well, for those of you who don't know, I'm Rufus," he introduced, "The President of Shin-Ra, Inc."

"You only President 'cause yer old man died!" Barret replied. He was correct, of course; but, that was kinda how Shin-Ra worked.

Though Rufus did not reply right away, he had not ignored Barret. The young man turned to look out across Midgar before saying, "That's right. I'll let you hear my new appointment speech."

"Oh, God, no, he's got him started now," I muttered to myself.

Rufus walked towards Tifa, "…Old man tried to control the world with money. It seems to have been working," he paused as he then made his way to Aerith. He shrugged with his hands, "The population thought that Shin-Ra would protect them." Next, he made his way to Barret, "But, I do things differently. I'll control the world with fear. It takes too much to do it like my old man." He paused one last time as he walked back to the railing, "A little fear will control the minds of the common people. There's no reason to waste money on them."

"He likes to make speeches just like his father," Tifa mumbled.

"He'll make mistakes just like his father," I added, quite loudly so as to make sure that Rufus heard it.

And that he did, as he turned around slowly to all but glare at me. A silent dialogue of sorts passed between us. Rufus was bound and determined to run Shin-Ra, and by extension the world, just as his father had. But, he wanted to be better than his father, he wanted to surpass him and then rub it in the dead man's face. He always had since he was a teenager—hell, maybe even before then.

I had known him when he was a teenager. I had been his bodyguard for a brief moment back then. I knew his personality better than most and because of that I knew his strengths and weaknesses. He was proud, arrogant, egotistical, determined, and stubborn; he was a double-edged sword. I was most of those things and then some; I had been and probably would be a thorn in his side.

Rufus had the ability to lead. He had been raised for it. However, if he chose to lead with such underhanded techniques… Well, he'd have a younger AVALANCHE knocking on his door then.

Cloud didn't notice or care that Rufus and I were having a staring contest—me mentally throwing morality at the blond and it bouncing off leaving him completely unfazed—and turned towards Barret.

"Get outta this building with Aerith!" he commanded.

"What?" Barret asked in confusion.

"I'll explain later! Barret! This is the real crisis for the planet!"

"The hell's that supposed to mean?"

"It means move your ass!" I replied, not breaking my eye contact with Rufus. I was starting to think I had accidentally struck up a staring contest, and I was _not_ going to lose if that were the case.

Barret stuttered indignantly, "Now, listen you—!"

"I'll tell you later!" Cloud urged. "Just take my word for it now! I'll go after I take care of him!"

Barret sighed in frustration, "Awright, Cloud!"

The big man ran towards the entrance back into the building followed closely by Red XIII, Tifa, and Aerith. Ronnie hesitated for a moment, wondering what he should do. Resigning myself to defeat, I broke eye contact and nodded towards the exit behind him. Ronnie frowned, not happy with the fact that I'd told him to leave, but ran after the others anyway. I turned back to face Rufus.

The young man shrugged, "Why do you want to fight me?"

Cloud pointed at him, "You seek the Promised Land and Sephiroth."

"Hm, exactly."

Rufus walked towards Cloud with a calm, even stride. It was obvious he wasn't feeling threatened by the giant Buster Sword on the spiky blond's back. My attention was drawn from him for a moment as I noticed something black moving towards us on the ground. I narrowed my eyes when I could just make out the shape of the dark, feline creature: Dark Nation. Loyal as ever, it seemed. As it walked closer to Rufus, it came into the light and its features were easier to see. The box-shaped head; the slender, smooth body; the freaky tentacle that came out of its neck. With Dark Nation added into the fray things were going to become a little more difficult—it could use magic.

Rufus came to stop a few feet in front of Cloud, "Mm? Did you know that Sephiroth is an Ancient?"

"…A lot has happened. Anyway, I can't let either you or Sephiroth have the Promised Land!"

Rufus shook his head, "I see. I guess this means we won't become friends."

With no warning at all, the fight was on. Okay, I guess there was a warning because Rufus drew his gun and aimed at Cloud at almost the same exact moment Cloud drew the Buster Sword and rushed at Rufus, however I had not got the memo and had a 'who-waaaa' moment before Dark Nation almost took off my head with its claws. Luckily, I saw the creature while it was still in mid-air and managed to duck in time to remain living. The damn bugger was fast, I'd give it that.

Summoning my suit, I readied my staff, pointing the prongs downwards at the creature. Dark Nation glowed briefly and I braced myself for a Thunder attack. However, it wasn't Thunder that came out; and the creature had aimed for Rufus. I risked a quick glance back at the boys and was slightly surprised to see a Barrier spell appear in front of the President. Cloud had unfortunately been slashing downwards at that moment and the Buster wound up bouncing harmlessly off the shield. Rufus grunted, forced back from the blow anyway. He aimed a shot at Cloud and fired, but the spiky blonde rolled out of the way.

Turning my attention back to Dark Nation, I said, "So, we meet again."

The creature growled low in its throat before springing at me. I twisted my torso to the left, gripped my staff below the head and around the middle, gathered my strength, and then turned sharply towards the right. The attack clipped Dark Nation on its right side and sent it flying. The creature yelped briefly as it struggled to get back to its feet, rolling around on its back trying to flip over. Though the blow had knocked it for a loop, the prongs that had made contact only managed to barely slice.

Finally standing on its feet, Dark Nation readied another magic attack. Uncertain of what to expect, I readied myself to run either away from the creature or towards it. Dark Nation ended up using MBarrier. I squinted at it in confusion. Why had it used a spell to protect against magic when I was using physical attacks against it? I thought about it for a while as I dodged yet another spring, bringing me around to face Cloud and Rufus who were closer towards the railing at the edge of the building.

That's when it occurred to me that Dark Nation probably suspected that I would start using magic when I realized that it was difficult to land a physical hit due to the creature's speed. _Oh, that is so not fair!_ I thought bitterly before rushing at it. Growling, I jumped into the air and made to slam my staff's prongs into the roof where Dark Nation was standing. As expected, it jumped to the side to avoid my attack. However, I did not slam the prongs into the roof when I landed, and instead quickly aimed the staff towards Dark Nation and let fly a Thundaga.

A small amount of the magic was filtered out by the MBarrier, but because it was a high level spell, a majority of it found its way through and struck Dark Nation square in the face. The creature screeched as it flew backwards. It crashed with a sickening thud into one of the glass windows and fell lifelessly to the ground.

"Problem solved," I growled, standing up to observe Cloud and Rufus.

I was quite worried for Rufus. Cloud had the advantage when it came to strength and weapon. Sure, guns had longer reach and shotguns could do a load of damage, but it took time to aim and reload; and Cloud had speed. With speed, the spiky blond could easily slip under Rufus' aim and slice him to pieces. Also, with Dark Nation gone there was no way to recast Barrier, and Rufus would be totally exposed.

Then came one of those psychic moments I tended to have. Right after I thought about the shield breaking, it did, in fact, break—quite violently. Cloud had leapt into the air and slashed downward, which put too much pressure on the already failing Barrier spell. The spell exploded. Cloud jumped back to avoid the little ball of flame, while Rufus was thrown quite roughly into the railing. The young man grunted and glared heatedly at Cloud as he tried to stand up straight.

Well, playtime was over, it seemed. I rushed forward. Cloud raised his sword again and sprinted towards Rufus. The President frowned in determination and prepared to side-step. However, he didn't need as I found myself between him and Cloud. The Buster Sword collided with my staff, jarring my whole body. I gritted my teeth and tried to keep my legs from giving out beneath me. Did I mention Cloud had muscles now? Much bigger muscles than I last remembered him with.

"Can't…" I grunted, "let you do…that…"

"What the hell are you doing!" Cloud shouted at me, confused and angry at the same time, "Get out of the way!"

"Let's…think rationally about this…shall we?"

The thumping of helicopter blades broke Cloud's concentration. My arms were quite relieved when he relaxed his stance, snapping his eyes towards the sky. With my back turned towards Rufus and the railing, I couldn't tell where the damn thing was, but it sounded like it was coming up from the ground. The wind picked up quickly, and soon Cloud and I were being slowly pushed away from the railing by the gust.

Cloud grunted in annoyance as he backed away from Rufus and me, shielding his eyes from the wind and dust. To avoid an embarrassing fall on my ass, I quickly moved away from Rufus as well, and then hopped behind Cloud. Now that I was facing Rufus, I noticed that the young man had quite a grip on the railing to avoid falling over. As the helicopter started to hover directly above him, the wind started to calm down a little. Rufus smirked as he let go of the railing and finally was able to stand up.

He chuckled once, "I guess that's all for today."

The President grabbed a hold of the helicopter's landing gear. I watched with slight worry and awe as the aircraft lifted him off the roof and flew away from the Shin-Ra building over the night city of Midgar. He was either really brave or really stupid. No way in hell would I have done that and risk dropping to my death.

With Rufus gone, Cloud's head instantly snapped over in my direction. Oh, boy.

"_What_ was that for! Are you insane? Why did you stop me!" He shouted.

I sighed and turned my head to look at him, "What do you think would have happened if you had killed him? He had reinforcements. You remember _that_, don't you? Rufus is never alone. If you had killed him, the Turks would have shot you into oblivion and then what? What would the others have said? Not only that, but do you honestly believe that cutting off the head of the snake will kill the rest of it? I got news for ya, kid, Shin-Ra ain't no snake. It's a _hive._ You kill the leader, they'll just replace him and then come after you like a swarm of hornets. _Think_ before you _act_, genius."

Cloud frowned, but it was clear that he was thinking over my words; and, as the seconds ticked on, I knew he understood that I was right. Granted, that had not been the real reason I saved Rufus, but I wasn't going to let Cloud in on that little secret. I was sure if Cloud knew the real reason he would have seriously injured me instead, or just left me there to fight Shin-Ra by myself.

"Don't _ever_ do that again," he finally replied before placing his sword on his back as he turned to leave.

I followed after him, deactivating my suit and then placed my staff across my shoulders, letting my wrists rest on it.

"Do you think the others made it out okay?" I asked conversationally.

"They're a strong group," Cloud replied. "I wouldn't underestimate them. After all, we did make it this far."

That was true, I supposed. But, it wouldn't be so easy going back down with the step up in security. AVALANCHE had stormed its way into the building somehow, broken out two research specimens, and threatened the new President. I doubted Shin-Ra would let us go without upping the ante.

.

.

.

**A/N: Inspiration: Son of Chaos (Shin-Ra Company) and Omnislash (Hurry Up!) **

**For anyone confused about things I mention. The Darnell Stint is named after my family, which seems to run well in the genes, and allows us to block out EVERYTHING we are not concentrated on. My dad has it, I have it, my brother Sam has it REALLY bad:**

**Saan: -cups hands over mouth- Earth to the man sitting in the chair reading manga.  
Sam: -oblivious-  
Ronnie: The Stint is strong in this one...**

**And about the Masamune. I shit you not, in the scene with the President, the hilt of the Masamune is red. I don't remember the later scenes, but it's quite possible they are the same. In Crisis Core, Dissidia, and most likely ACC, it is blue. Conclusion: Square went oops. Second Conclusion: This aspiring writer can use this to her advantage. -cackles insanely-**

**I've also noticed Saan changes moods quite easily and frequently. I guess she has a bit of emotional ADD. And yes, I quoted Dane Cook. I can do that since this is a narrative.**


	3. Crazy Motorcycle

**A/N: Can I commission a random Japanese man to come up with completely bogus yet cool last names for my OCs? I mean seriously, how do they do it? Maybe I should just use Ronnie…he's good at nonsensical names. BAH!**

**Warning: This chapter jumps from humor to drama to humor in almost the blink of an eye.**

**Kudos: SrgntDrew, Crimson Solitude of the Moon, Blue Fire Lily, Ultimate, Dreylen, Risikaa, SageofAges729, and anyone who reviews after I write this.**

**AND IRISH-BRIGID, LAWLS.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII. I do, however, own this plot, Saan, Ronnie, and a dead laptop that refuses to boot therefore I am trapped within the kitchen. TRAPPED I SAY! D:**

**.**

**.**

Cloud and I ran down the stairs back to the 69th Floor. Tifa was waiting for us near the door to the rest of the complex. Upon hearing our footsteps, she turned to face us. Her face immediately lit up a little when she saw Cloud returning in one piece. Even so, it was obvious she was still a little worried. Taking a quick look around, I realized why.

Tifa was the _only_ one waiting for us. The others had gone on ahead while Tifa stayed behind to make sure Cloud made it through okay. Well, wasn't he special? I noticed that Ronnie hadn't waited for me! Not that I really cared, but still, I had to find _something_ to gripe about. Cloud and I thudded to a stop beside her.

"Where's Rufus?" she asked as she took a brief glance at our condition.

Cloud took the time to give me an I'm-not-happy-with-you look before replying, "I couldn't finish 'em. Looks like this's gonna get complicated."

"As if it wasn't already," I muttered.

"Figures," Tifa sighed. She stood up straight, "Aerith went with the others on ahead. They're probably out of the building by now."

Or they could have been captured and or executed. Realistically speaking, there were sixty-eight floors between the one we were on and the 1st Floor. Anything could have happened and we would have been none the wiser. But I kept that to myself. It was better to let the optimistic people have their day.

"The outside elevator will take too long to get back up here. We'll make it there faster if we take the stairs back to the 59th Floor and then hop into the elevators," Cloud replied thoughtfully.

"Wait, you said _back_," I interjected. "Where did you break in at? I doubt they would have let you storm the front door and live to tell the tale."

"The stairs," Tifa answered.

I laughed, "Oh ho ho, so _you_ climbed them, too, eh? Bet that was fun! I'm surprised Shin-Ra hasn't upped the security on that damn thing."

Cloud frowned, turning his head to look at me quizzically, "You said _too_. Have _you_ climbed them?"

Scrunching my face up into a disgusted scowl, I growled, "Once. And I am never, ever doing that again. Ever. I refuse. You can't make me."

A brief silence fell over the group. Both Cloud's and Tifa's faces changed to match an equal amount of revelation. I frowned uneasily, cutting my eyes back and forth between them. What I had said before quickly ran through my head as I tried to think of what it was that I'd given away. Shortly, it came to me. I had been in the Shin-Ra building before. AVALANCHE had not. I was an accurate source of insider info. Then my frown deepened. Wait a minute, that didn't make sense. I was not the only person in "AVALANCHE" who had stepped foot within the Shin-Ra Building. Cloud had, too!

"You've worked in the Shin-Ra Building before, right?" Tifa asked, though it was evident in her tone that she suspected I had.

"Yes," I trailed off.

"Then you know your way around?" Cloud asked, on the same wavelength as the brunette.

"_You_ know your way around," I replied. "You're SOLDIER." Coughliescough.

Cloud frowned, "I've never been to Headquarters before."

Insert mental train wreck here. Do what! I wanted to grab the boy by the shoulders, shake him violently, and protest, "Yes, you have! You were a grunt! You crashed into my fucking legs the day we left for Nibelheim and nearly broke my back in the process! What the hell do you mean you have not been here!" Resisting the equally forceful urge to backhand the blond, I took a deep breath and put my brain to work.

"Right, then," I replied. "What is it you want to know?"

"How do we get out of here?" Tifa asked, quick and to the point.

"…we take the stairs to Floor 59 and then use the inside elevators to get to the second floor."

"I think she means _after_ we get to the bottom of the building. What's the easiest way to get out of here without being caught?" Cloud asked.

Yes, definitely missing good, old-fashioned SOLDIER. Apparently, SOLDIER was the only force on the planet capable of planning things through _before_ they happened. I thought about the questions asked of me, anyway. If we were to run outside on foot, we'd have a very hard time escaping SOLDIER, the Army, and the Turks. No less of a force would be acceptable to go after a group that would be framed for killing the President and injuring the Vice President. WWGD—What would Genesis do? Well, Genesis would have bust out of the building, Fira spells a-flyin', and then taken off on that one wing of his into the sunset. We did not have Fira spells or wings at our disposable. Next on the list came possible means of transportation other than our feet.

"Do they still have those ugly ass vehicles in the showcase rooms?" I asked.

"Where?" Cloud asked.

"Wait, I think I know what you're talking about!" Tifa exclaimed, almost bouncing in anticipation. "Shin-Ra keeps an area open to the public on the lower floors, and they showcase items of theirs they've made. Is that what you're talking about?"

"Yes," I replied slowly. "Last time I checked, there were vehicles there. If we could hotwire them, we _could_ use those."

"We'd be so lucky as to find the keys already in them," Cloud muttered, turning his attention back towards the automated door behind Tifa.

"Surely Shin-Ra is not that dumb," I said.

"They left their fire escape unguarded," Cloud countered.

"Touché."

"Well, alright then!" Tifa said happily, "Let's meet up with the others and get out of here."

—**FFVII—**

And thus Cloud had a genius idea. It was an idea so genius, that it came upon him like the apple striking Newton on the head, to which he exclaimed, "Eureka!" We had exited the elevators on the second floor, the spiky blond had made eye contact with the motorbike standing, pristine, in its little area, and his basic male instincts had kicked in. In summary: He had to have the shiny thing that went 'vroom'.

"I'll use the motorcycle. It's small and fast and will allow me to keep anyone off your backs. Go downstairs and see if they have one of those trucks Shin-Ra sells. If they don't, I can still draw them away with the motorcycle."

"And what if I want the shiny, fast thing?" I asked mockingly. I didn't, really.

Cloud gave me a blank look, "And what's not to say you won't steal it and leave us behind?"

"I could have killed you in the stairs or the elevator, if I so felt like it."

Of course, my comment only made Cloud narrow his eyes in a threatening manner. It was obvious that Cloud was not the type to joke about certain things, and I was going to have to learn pretty quickly what things not to joke about lest I endanger myself further.

"It was a joke, ha ha," I said impassively. "Jeez, lighten up, man."

"I'm not laughing," Cloud replied gruffly.

"Obviously."

Tifa cleared her throat uneasily, "Anyways, Saan, I think you and I should go downstairs to try and find the others. If they haven't made it to the 1st Floor yet, we can spend that time looking for a car or truck. Preferably a truck since there's so many of us. Also, Barret's kind of big…"

The brunette frowned in thought, probably trying to imagine the best way to shove so many people into one vehicle. Like a Tetris puzzle. Even with Cloud on a motorcycle, that still left Tifa, Aerith, Ronnie, Barret, Red XIII, and me. I was small enough that I could fit anywhere, but with six people in an automobile, even I took up a lot of space. Plus my rod would prove difficult to fit into the equation.

Cloud and I shared another stare down. What we had on our hands were two people who were headstrong leader types, and extremely stubborn ones to boot. Our personalities were clashing because they were so similar. One of us was going to have to back down. Well, Cloud's friends far outnumbered my friends; and, really, I didn't feel like quarreling with the kid. I knew him, even if he swore up and down he didn't know me. Smothering my pride, I sighed in defeat.

"I guess I'll go with Tifa then," I muttered as I turned to walk away.

I followed after the young woman, watching her booted feet as she walked. I wasn't too keen on the idea of going anywhere with her. The fact that she hadn't told Cloud anything that happened at Nibelheim, hadn't reminded him, hadn't set him straight, ticked me off. In fact, it upset me so much that, if I continued to think about it, _really_ run it through my head over and over again, I would end up hating her. So, I tried not thinking about it and instead thought about reasons why she wouldn't tell Cloud.

Maybe she'd also forgotten? It was possible, wasn't it? I tried to remember where Tifa had been that night. Running the Incident through my mind was harder than I thought it'd be. Even _my_ memory was a little foggy, but at least I could recall everything when I concentrated hard enough. Jerry, that little cadet—my designated stalker. He had come running out of Cloud's house. He'd mentioned Cloud's mother; Cloud had gone after Sephiroth; Tifa had gone after Sephiroth. Yet, I couldn't remember if Jerry had told me about Tifa or if it was—oh Lord, what was his name? Zangan, wasn't it? Tifa's old teacher. Whoever had said it, Jerry and I had gone to the reactor. I had wanted to stop them from doing anything foolish. I had wanted to stop Sephiroth, even though I knew I couldn't.

I recalled the fight with the dragon. I remembered sending Jerry off. I found Cloud and Zack in the Reactor. No trace of Sephiroth was to be found—only his aftermath. I didn't remember seeing Tifa… My breath hitched as I came back to sending Jerry off. My teeth worried my bottom lip as I furiously wondered whether or not he'd made it off the mountain or not. _How long ago had that been?_

An abrupt sound of surprise from Tifa made me jerk my head up from where I'd been staring at the floor.

"Barret!" she exclaimed as she took off down the stairs to the lower level.

Groaning a little at the lack of warning, I jogged after her. Barret seemed startled as he spun around to face whoever had called his name. With him were Aerith, Red XIII, and Ronnie. So, all of them had made it and nothing had happened, fancy that.

"Saan!" Ronnie shouted.

"Tifa!" Barret mirrored. "Where's Cloud?"

Tifa and I joined the others, each of us going to our respective parties.

"Are you alright?" Ronnie asked me, eyes wide with nervousness and concern.

"Yes, why wouldn't I be?" I answered, jerking my head once in confusion.

Ronnie paused briefly, confusion crossing his own features, before he asked, "Didn't you fight Rufus?"

I blinked, remembered, and then laughed awkwardly, "Oh, yes, that…"

I scratched the back of my helmet sheepishly, since I couldn't very well reach the back of my head. Realizing what I was doing, I made a face of mock horror. If I hadn't known better, I would have sworn Zack had somehow possessed me while I was in the tube. Suddenly paranoid, I briefly looked right and left, half expecting to see a ghostly presence hovering over my shoulder. I shuddered.

"I'll tell you later!" Tifa shouted.

Looking to my right, I noticed she was already halfway across the room. Behind her stood the big, glass label of the Shin-Ra company. She was motioning for us to follow her.

"Hurry! Hurry!" she pleaded.

She turned on her heel and ran past the sign. Aerith and Red XIII shared a brief look before they ran after Tifa without question. Barret groaned in frustration, but also obeyed the woman. I jogged after them, Ronnie right on my heels.

"Wait, what's going on?" he asked.

"We're stealing a car and getting the hell out of here," I replied.

"You mean that piece of—"

"Yes, that piece of shit thing."

"Wow, I guess it's a good thing they still have that on display, then."

I skidded to a halt and whirled on Ronnie. He made it three steps further than I before he applied the brakes. He then turned to look at me in question. Tifa had managed to find the truck—not that hard considering it was out in the open—and the others were making their way inside. The truck was small and I knew it was going to be a tight fit. However, that was not why I had stopped.

"Ok," I began, holding up a finger, "You need to tell me just _how long_ I've been out before I say or do something completely stupid. The last thing I remember about this building is the day I left for Nibelheim. I know time's passed because everyone looks older and your hair used to not be…" I trailed off to groan my disapproval. "So, what gives?"

Ronnie looked around uncomfortably, swaying back and forth, "Promise you won't freak out, or anything?"

"…No."

"Ok!" Ronnie exclaimed happily, taking a deep breath.

"No, as in I do not promise."

"Oh…" he mumbled dejectedly. He hesitated for a moment, took another deep breath, and bluntly told me, "You've been in that tube for five years…"

Pause for effect. A myriad of expressions went across my face—all of them clearly letting him know that I was trying and failing to digest what I had just heard. Five _years_? _Five_ years? As in half a decade? I did the math in my head. I was twenty-four last time I checked. That made me… My brows furrowed as my mouth dropped, a look of sheer terror.

"I'm twenty-nine!" I screeched.

Ronnie looked quickly over to the truck, noticed the others motioning for us to hurry the hell up, and then grabbed my wrist. He dragged me quickly towards the blue truck. Tifa was driving; Aerith was beside her in the passenger seat. Barret and Red XIII were in the tiny bed in the back. But, I wasn't much paying attention to their seating arrangement, or the fact that Ronnie and I would have one hell of a time smushing our way inside the little vehicle. No, I was in the middle of a life crisis.

"I'm _twenty-nine_?" I reiterated. "Where has my life gone! What…what… Twenty-nine!"

Reaching the truck, I numbly let Ronnie help me into the bed. My subconscious was apparently working even though the rest of my brain was mush, for I moved my staff in just a way that I wouldn't spear Barret while climbing in. I plopped down between him and Red XIII. Ronnie walked to the other side of the truck, jumped in, and half-fell half-sat at our feet.

"Uh—But—I—_No!_" I whined, shaking a little with the bed as Tifa started the vehicle.

"Oh, come on," Ronnie snapped half-heartedly. "I'm thirty! Do you have any idea how that feels? And I had to _live_ through all those years, whereas you didn't."

"I would have much preferred to live through those years, thank you!" I replied hysterically. "Do you know what this means? I'm past dating age! My youth is gone! I'm a failure as a woman!"

I dropped my head into my hands in defeat. The sound of a motorcycle engine wormed its way into my senses. Cloud had made it to us, it seemed. I whined again, rocking from side to side, bouncing into Barret and Red.

"Whoa, watch it!" Barret snapped. "What's wit' chu?"

I heard Ronnie lean towards the bigger man, "Just ignore her, she's coming to terms with her age. She's been out of it for five years."

Barret whistled, "Man, that sucks. But still, there ain't enough room for you t' be havin' an emotional breakdown back 'ere. Stop squirmin'!"

The motorcycle was extremely loud. It sounded like Cloud was parked right beside the truck. When he spoke, it became clear that that was in fact where he was.

He yelled over the engine of the bike, "There's no way we'll make it out the front gate. There's an access to one of the roads on the second floor. Do you think you can drive that thing up the stairs?"

I looked up from my hands, stared at the boy, and then my jaw dropped again, "You're twenty-one!"

Cloud furrowed his brows at me, confused. Part of his expression was from the fact that my statement had nothing to do with the situation at hand, at least from his point of view. The other part came from the fact that I should not know how old he was…at least from his point of view. I mentally kicked myself for my slip-up.

Ronnie leaned over the edge of the truck and yelled to Cloud, "Ignore her! She's—"

I physically kicked Ronnie in the side. The man grunted, grabbing at his bruised ribs. He snapped his head to face me, all but glaring at me. I glared back at him, remembered he couldn't see my eyes because of my helmet, and then silently mouthed for him to shut up. Cloud merely shook his head.

Tifa turned away from Ronnie and me to face Cloud, "Don't worry about it, I'm used to driving on rocky terrain, remember?"

Her voice carried a playful tone. Visions of the Nibel Mountains and the little village at the bottom of them ran through my head. The old, decrepit truck that lay at the entrance near the Inn. I guess it was possible that Tifa had learned to drive off-road. I frowned as a sudden thought streaked through my mind, blindsiding me like lightning. Had Cloud learned to drive there, too? Could he even remember _that_? It was becoming evident that whenever I thought about Cloud I found myself on the brink of a very depressing mood. So, I forced that thought away with a scowl and replaced it with the idea of getting down to business.

Cloud nodded once before he squeezed the right handle of the bike, setting it in motion as well as our hair-brained plan to escape. Okay, so it was my hair-brained plan. They shouldn't have expected anything less from a woman that was halfway off her rocker.

The motorcycle roared loudly, the back tire squealing as it tried to find purchase on the slick floor. Cloud fishtailed before re-righting the bike towards the front of the building. Show off. Though, there was something about watching a vehicle do that that got one's adrenaline pumping. Tifa wasted no time in following suit. Granted, our little blue truck was nowhere near as kickass as Cloud's bike, but it tried all the same.

I whimpered a little as the brunette took out the glass Shin-Ra sign, flinching for fear that a piece might hit me. Barret whooped, throwing his big arm into the air in triumph. I frowned as the man inadvertently pushed me into Red. The creature grunted in discomfort as my elbow found its way into his ribs.

"What was that about not squirming?" I grumbled.

Tifa yanked the wheel as hard as she could to the left, following Cloud towards the stairs. I whimpered again as I pitifully tried to grab at the side of the truck to steady myself. The vehicle rocked dangerously for a moment, skid just a bit, and then finally decided to go where Tifa wanted it to. I let out a shaky breath.

"Dear God, Ronnie, I think I've finally found someone who's a worse driver than you!" I yelped.

"Hey!" both Ronnie and Tifa exclaimed indignantly.

"Don't listen to 'er, Teef," Barret said, completely unfazed by the fact the vehicle was bouncing up stairs, "I think yer doin' a wonderful job!"

"Thank you, Barret," Tifa replied calmly, fighting with the wheel as it jerked violently with each bump.

I looked at him like he'd lost his mind. The truck skid to an abrupt stop, forcing everyone in the bed into one another as we slid towards the front. Cloud had paused in front of one of the windows and was looking over his shoulder at us. He and Tifa shared a look, Cloud turned back to face the window, and then the crazy blond gunned it.

I watched in awe, mouth agape, as the motorcycle crashed violently through the glass. The sound it made was amazing. However, all epicness quickly fled from my mind when I realized that we were about to follow its course. Oh, no, no, no. I could handle jumping from a helicopter—okay crashing with a helicopter—because _my life depended on it_, but driving out of a window from the second floor into space was not on my list of things I wanted to do in my lifetime.

I held my breath as Tifa slammed her foot down onto the gas pedal. Every swear word in existence ran through my head as the vehicle passed the window into open air. My eyes closed involuntarily as I waited for the impact. The truck hit the ground with an awful sound and an even worse jerk. I was knocked back and forth into everyone like an unfortunate bobble head. Amazingly, Tifa kept the vehicle in control, and when I opened my eyes again, we were all still alive and speeding after Cloud on the freeway.

Taking a brief look around, it was clear that I wasn't the only one who had been worried. Ronnie was a little pale, but was otherwise alright. Barret let out a breath he probably didn't even know he was holding. Red was wide-eyed. The lion lowered himself on the bed, probably thinking that the smaller he was, the less likely it was that he would get thrown out. I was a nervous wreck, but wasn't about to let that show more than with a brief, involuntary shudder.

My relief didn't last long as the sound of multiple engines whining reached my ears. Turning to look over my shoulder, I twitched as I noticed the group of motorcycles chasing after us.

"Shit," I cursed under my breath. Struggling to my knees, I shouted over the top of the truck to Cloud, "We got company!"

"Fuck!" Barret shouted, finally noticing our problem, "Spiky, you'd better do sumthin' 'bout these guys! They gainin' fast!"

Cloud looked over his shoulder, said something that was lost in the wind, and pulled to the side. Tifa drove up beside him.

"Just keep drivin'," he shouted to her, "Make sure you stay in front of me. I'll keep them off of you."

Without further word, the blond let up on the throttle and fell back. When he was at least twenty feet behind the truck, he reached back with his left hand and grasped the hilt of the Buster Sword.

"Oh, don't tell me he's going to do what I think he's going to do," I grumbled.

Red peeked over the back of the truck, "It appears he is going to try and fend them off with his sword. Is that what you meant?"

"Great," I replied lowly.

Sighing, I tried to reposition myself so that my body was facing the boy. It was easier said than done. All I managed to do was not only accidentally kick Barret but nearly spear him too and fall on Ronnie's legs. I growled in frustration.

"Hey, watch it!" the older man snapped.

"It's not my fault this fucking thing is so tiny!" I shouted back. "All right, ya'll are gonna hafta move. I'm gonna try and help Cloud out with my magic."

"That's not that bad of a plan, actually," Ronnie muttered. "He might not be able to hit them all before they reach us. Right. Barret, scoot towards your left and take Saan's spot. I'll move where you were. Red XIII, you're probably going to have to scoot forward a bit; yeah, like that."

The boys repositioned themselves a little more gracefully than I had when I tried. Though, they were almost painfully crushed against one another. It was actually a pretty amusing sight, but I had more important things to worry about than to laugh at their expense. Looking over my right shoulder, I addressed the young woman driving.

"Tifa, I'm going to stand up a little so I won't accidentally hit the truck—"

"Hit the truck with what?" Aerith asked nervously. Now that I could see her a little better, she looked just as wide-eyed as Ronnie had moments before.

"Thunder," I replied. "Tifa, I need you to warn me when you're going to turn or brake so I don't lose balance and fall off."

"Alright," she said, nodding once. "I'll try."

A little worried that she said she'd _try_ and not that she _would_, I turned back to face the road. Cloud was just cleaving the first grunt off his bike. I flinched when the man fell to the ground, rolling and tumbling along with the wreckage of his motorcycle. That had to have hurt. There was no way road burn felt good, if the man lived or didn't get run over by a comrade. Two more cyclists pulled up next to Cloud. The blond expertly maneuvered in front of them, then slowed so that he was on their left. He swung the Buster Sword, knocking the closest one for a loop. The man cried out as he lost control and then crashed into the bike behind him. The two grunts faded from sight.

"Right!" Tifa shouted.

I bent my knees just a little and braced myself against the turn. Luckily, the turn wasn't very sharp and was brief. Standing back up, I caught sight of three more cyclists approaching.

"Since when did the Army have so many damn bikes?" I asked, watching a hapless fool get within Cloud's range.

"You'd be surprised what they specialize in," Ronnie grumbled.

Down went another man. Cloud wasted no time targeting the next one, who had skirted by him on his left. That cyclist wasn't going to be fast enough to avoid Cloud the next go around. However, the third one used his buddy as a distraction. Seeing his chance, the grunt zoomed by Cloud on the right and made his way for the truck.

"Oh, no you don't," I muttered, readying my staff to let fly a Thunder spell.

"Left!" Tifa shouted.

That time I almost didn't brace myself fast enough. I stumbled a bit as the truck veered to the left. Again, the curve wasn't that bad, but our speed was increasing. Tifa evened out the vehicle, allowing me to stand back up and get back to what I was doing before. Aiming at the incoming motorcycle, I shot Thunder at it. The lightning arced from the three points of my staff, sped through the air, and collided with the front of the bike.

The front end of the bike exploded in a tiny ball of flame. The grunt shouted as the motorcycle reared forwards. The man practically face-planted the ground. Both his body and the bike fell away with amazing speed. Looking quickly at Cloud, I noticed his little grunt had disappeared as well. He must have taken him out when I was struggling to stay on the truck.

The next wave arrived, three more bikes. Cloud was quick, pulling away from the retaining wall and back towards the center of the road. He broadsided one of the grunts with the side of the Buster Sword, sending the man backwards off his bike. The other two, however, zoomed past Cloud on their way to the truck. Cloud didn't bother with them, instead focusing his attention on two more that were coming his way. I assumed he knew I would take care of any that escaped him.

"Right!" Tifa warned.

Again I braced myself for the small turn. Luckily for me, the turns _were_ small. Straightening back up, I fired two quick and successive shots at the enemies. Like before, the spell struck the front of their bikes, setting off small explosions and knocking the men to the ground. Cloud had also disposed of the two that had specifically targeted him.

"Right curve!"

I groaned in annoyance and ducked down, grasping the side of the truck for balance.

"You gettin' pretty good at this!" Barret exclaimed merrily from beside me.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Barret, but things weren't over yet. Four more grunts were making their way towards us. I swore inwardly. I didn't remember Shin-Ra having such a large group of Infantrymen in their ranks, let alone so many vehicles. If only the Army's efficiency had been that good when Genesis had attacked! He might not have gotten away like he had.

The curve straightened out and I stood back up. Cloud had maneuvered his way in-between two of the motorcyclists. He dodged an attempt to ram him from the guy on the right, causing the guy on the left to swerve or get taken out as well. With ease, the blond sliced at one and then the other, knocking them away as if he were swatting flies.

"Left!"

Bracing myself, I stared at the two that had dared venture too close to the truck. As the small curve straightened, Cloud gunned his little bike's engine to catch up with the straggler. Aiming at the closest, I fired a shot of Thunder. It hit, of course, and down the driver went. The motorcycle bounced off the ground and into the path of the other grunt, taking him out. The giddy feeling I had at getting a two-for-one quickly vanished when I saw Cloud jerk violently to the right to avoid _both_ motorcycles.

"Sorry!" I called out lamely.

"You spoke to soon, Barret," Ronnie mumbled.

"Shut up!" I shouted, snapping my head around to glare at him, "It's hard to process physics at these speeds!"

"_Sure_," Ronnie teased.

"Sharp right!" Tifa called out.

Once again, I ducked into the truck and held on. Tifa was not joking when she said it was sharp. Everyone in the back wound up involuntarily leaning to the left. I lost sight of Cloud for a moment, making me a little nervous. In a good second or two, the road finally straightened out. Cloud reappeared, two grunts right behind him. I slouched a little.

"They just won't give up."

"Well, we did kinda kill the President," Ronnie replied dejectedly.

"No, we didn't," Barret said. "That Sephiroth guy did!"

"Yes, well, for all intents and purposes, and as far as the public will be told, AVALANCHE did it," I muttered, watching two more grunts fall to the Buster Sword. Three more were on their way.

"Man, why they gotta do that?" Barret growled. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he's dead an' all, but why we gotta be blamed fo' ev'rything? They gonna have the whole world hatin' us!"

I pursed my lips together as Cloud slowed to take out the grunt on his left. I repeated Barret's words through my head. Have the whole world hating us. The fall of the Plate in Sector 7 was attributed to AVALANCHE, and I was ninety-nine percent sure the death of the President would fall on our shoulders, too. Shin-Ra would spare no expense to maintain its image as the pristine, friendly-neighbor type of company. Anything AVALANCHE did in the future to Shin-Ra would be blown out of proportion and twisted to lean the people's favor towards Shin-Ra. Then, not only would our little group have to fret about the Turks, and the Army, but also random people on the streets looking for a reward. Bounty hunters. Mercenaries.

"Shit," I swore under my breath. "I've bitten off more than I can chew."

I came back to reality just in time to see the last grunt trailing after Cloud fall. The whines of motorcycle engines were quieting—all except for Cloud's, which revved as he sped to catch up with us. Sighing, and thankful it was all over, I finally sat down. I looked over my shoulder to see where we were headed. Unfortunately, we were in a tunnel, and the dim, red lights on the sides of the road weren't producing enough light to see much of anything.

"Everyone all right?" Cloud called out over the sound of the echoing motors.

"Yeah!" Tifa shouted back.

"Jus' peachy-keen, Spikey!" Barret added, grinning from ear to ear. "You an' this SOLDIER here did a mighty fine job o' keepin' them off our backs!"

A low, rumbling noise reached my ears once Barret's loud voice stopped. I frowned uneasily and turned slowly to face Ronnie. He looked at me with a similar expression and we both turned to face behind the truck. The noise got progressively louder. My brows knitted together as I realized that the sound was approaching at a very fast clip, and in only seconds, each one of the AVALANCHE members registered that something was horribly wrong with that noise. Finally, we exited the tunnel. The sound didn't go away.

Cloud, frowning in determination and confusion, slowed a little and risked a peek over his shoulder. He gave a startled yelp. The motorcycle raced towards us.

"Tifa!" He shouted in alarm.

Everyone in the back of the truck gave similar shouts of alarm—me included—when a giant robot materialized out of the darkness of the tunnel, hot on our trail. The truck jerked suddenly, causing us in the back to cry out once again.

"Cloud!" Tifa screeched, panic in her voice, as well.

"Oh, goodness…" I heard Aerith whimper.

"What?" I asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

I looked over my other shoulder quickly to see a wonderful sight. The freeway ceased. The time I had joked about when Ronnie and I'd wrecked on Yell Road—how it appeared to go, "road, road, road, no road"—that _literally_ happened. Briefly, the thought occurred to me that I should just curl up and die because the way my luck was running, no matter how hard I fought I was still going to lose. It wasn't worth trying anymore. But that was fatalistic, and those thoughts best belonged to someone else; so, I focused on bracing myself because, if I was right, brakes were about to be slammed.

And they were. A collection of inhales, grunts, and an 'Eep!' could be heard from all of us in the back as the tires squealed in protest. I kept my eyes open despite the overwhelming urge to close them. The truck shuddered as the wheels locked up. Praise be to Tifa's driving skills for the blue vehicle stopped just short of three car-lengths from the edge of a certain, fire-y death. Cloud turned the bike sideways, miraculously not laying it down, and skid to a stop, even with the truck.

I wasted no time hopping out of the truck. Our assailant wasn't stopping. Twirling my staff around and aiming it at the massive robot-tank, I readied a shot of Thunder. However, a barrage of gunfire from behind me made me stop. I flinched a little as the bullets went whizzing past me to strike uselessly against the machine.

"Barret!" I hissed, snapping my head around to look at the big man.

He, along with everyone else, had made it out (or off) of their respective vehicles. And each one of them seemed raring to go. I had to admire their determination to live. Barret, standing with his feet apart, holding his gun arm with his left hand, finally stopped firing and looked at me. He grunted.

"What?" He asked gruffly. "I steal your spotlight, or sumthin'?"

"No," I replied evenly. "I'm more worried about you accidentally killing one of us with your _ricocheting bullets_."

I faced the machine. The robot-tank must have ceased its approach when Barret had shot at it. Instead, it seemed to be adjusting its stance. The top portion of the tank straightened up and revealed itself to be slightly humanoid. I frowned a little. It didn't have hands, but rather two shields with wicked looking blades on them. For some reason, it held these at different heights. Instead of treads, the machine rolled on six big wheels of spikes, each set looking independent from the others. No wonder it had made such a loud racket, it was tearing up the road as it went! As if to show its strength to worthless creatures in front of it, it spun its upper half, blades ripping threw air with ease.

"She's right about this one, Barret," Cloud said.

He had stepped away from the motorcycle and made it a good clip towards the robot. He held the Buster Sword in front of him, ready for action.

"Your bullets aren't going to do much this time. Aerith, you should stay back, as well. There's no telling what this mech can do."

"Alright," she nodded, grasping her rod in her hands tightly, "I'll heal you guys if you need it."

Ah, so the group had Materia. That would make things easier. I took a few steps forward to stand beside Cloud.

"Magic is our best bet in this," I said, watching the robot-tank wearily. It hadn't made its move yet. "Whoever has Thunder Materia would be best."

"That would be me," Cloud replied. "As well as Blizzard."

"I have a Fire Materia," Red XIII supplied as he took a spot beside me.

"Oh," Ronnie added, raising his arm into the air, "I have a Mastered Fire Materia!"

"Give it to Tifa," I snapped quickly.

The robot had started to move. With surprising speed, the machine scrunched its front and rear wheels together, rolled forward, and spun its blades at us. Cloud, Red, and I dodged like little ants. I wound up on the same side as Cloud. We watched in apprehensive horror as the blades tore up the pavement where we had stood a second before, chunks flying every which-a-way.

Ronnie, wide-eyed, thrust the red, glowing orb that he retrieved from his pocket into Tifa's hands. She quickly junctioned it to her glove and then leapt to where Red XIII had jumped. Barret and Aerith, both looking a little shaken, found refuge behind the truck. Ronnie quickly joined them.

Slowly, the robot straightened itself back up. With little, mechanical whirs, it looked between the two groups on either side of it, trying to determine which one to attack next. Cloud must have caught on to this little fact and, probably worried about the safety of the close-range fighters on the other side, took initiative. With quite an impressive little battle yell, he charged at the robot. Raising the Buster Sword, he leapt into the air, spun for momentum, and slammed the big blade right through the side of the machine. The Buster Sword's weight allowed it to cut a pretty big gash through the metal exterior of the mech's torso's side. Wrenching his sword free, Cloud hopped back to land a few feet in front of me.

"Nice," I muttered, thinking of _my_ next move.

Cloud's little trick worked, and the robot slowly rotated its wheels around to face us.

"Fire!" Came a collective cry from Tifa and Red XIII.

The two spells ignited in almost the same area upon the mech's back. Its upper half rocked forward from the small explosions. Though Tifa was using a Mastered Materia, it seemed she was only able to access the lesser spell. I frowned a little. Her level of experience must have been pretty low. Probably all of AVALANCHE was like that. Cloud had an advantage, at least.

Cloud had gained the robot's attention once, and the magic user's side was allowed a turn. If our side didn't move after that, the robot could easily swivel around and attack Red and Tifa. We go, they go, we go. If all of us could move fast enough, the mech would be trapped and unable to attack. It only took a second for that conclusion to be reached in my mind.

"We go, they go, we go!" I shouted to Cloud, hoping the others would hear. "And try using _magic_ this time?"

He gave a short nod, not bothering to look at me. Twirling his sword around—just like Zack—he placed it on his back and held his hands out in front of him. _Interesting way of casting_, I thought. Pointing my staff's prongs at the mech, I summoned my magic.

"Thunder!" Cloud shouted.

His spell leapt from his hands and reached out towards the mech at the same time mine shot from the prongs of my staff. Cloud's had been aimed at the machine's torso—mine a little further down at the joint. The robot jerked as the surge of electricity hit it, and then was rocked by two more small explosions caused by Thunder.

So, Cloud couldn't cast magic without the spells name, either. I frowned. Though he was claiming to be a First Class SOLDIER, it was obvious he was nowhere near that level. Yet, there he stood with _Zack's_ sword and a First's uniform. Questions burned inside my head, but I quickly smothered them. The battle at hand was more important.

The robot whirred, gears clinking and clacking as it drew in on itself. Its arms folded neatly into its sides as its wheels spaced out a little. Those actions made me a little nervous. That was the same position it had been in when it was barreling after us. Was it going to ram us? I got ready to dodge in the event that it did.

"Fire!" Tifa and Red chorused again.

Though the two spells hit their destination, the effect of the blast wasn't as great with the robot curled up. _Damn_, I thought bitterly. The machine was starting to play hardball. With it the way it was, more time would be wasted trying to dispose of the mech instead of fleeing anything else Shin-Ra threw at us.

As I was staring at the robot, trying to come up with a better way to destroy it—about to just break down and use Thundaga though I was trying to save magic—I noticed a small little flicker of light in the two protrusions on the machine's back. My eyes widened immediately. The shape of the rods, the fact they were hollow, the light coming from them, it all clicked.

"Fuck!" I shouted, "Flamethrower!"

Before the words were out of my mouth, I was already running towards my left, in the direction of the truck. I heard the familiar _whoosh_ of flame. The intense heat at my back only spurred me on faster. Remembering that Cloud had been standing near me, I risked a peek over my right shoulder. Cloud had been fast and was standing quite well out of harm's way on the robot's right. I, on the other hand, seemed to have acquired the mech's fancy and proceeded to run lest I become a wonderful piece of Saan jerky.

"Why _me_?" I groaned, taking brief—very brief—amusement in Ronnie's and Aerith's shocked expressions. Barret just looked very tense and a little put off.

"Thunder!" Cloud cast.

The jolt of electricity ceased the robot's movements and the deadly spray coming from it. I skid to a halt. Thanks to the mech's flamethrower technique, our fighting group's positions had changed. Cloud had walked a little back towards where he and I had been before. Red XIII was almost directly across from me on the other side of the bot. Tifa was across from Cloud, though still close to Red. I was the farthest away from anybody.

Given our new positions, we came to a silent, yet unanimous, decision to enter an all-out slug fest with robot. Red XIII was the first to move, bounding at the robot as it started to enter its 'standing' position. With three short hops, the lion had left the ground, bounced off the machine's wheel, off its back, and cast a Fire spell. The spell exploded at close range, perhaps doing more damage, and also propelled Red XIII further away from the machine to land on his feet a safe distance away.

Tifa charged next with a primal yell, probably to boost her adrenaline and, consequently, her strength. She took a running leap. The girl surprised me when she got the Fire Materia to activate, encircling her fist. Drawing back her fist, she seemed to hover for a second before she let loose with a fire-y punch worthy of a shout of "FALCON PAWNCH!" The robot recoiled pretty far from something so 'simple'. Tifa used the robot's torso to kick off and landed beside Cloud.

Sticking with the counter-clockwise design to our attacking system, I was up next. I spun my staff as I sprinted towards the mech. My plan had been to attack the machine in a similar way as I had done to previous mechs before it: jump into the air, stab the robot with my diamond, and let loose a Thunder spell. However, when I went springing into the air, the robot—for whatever reason—decided to spin. Perhaps it got tired of everyone picking on it?

I flew straight into the whirling mess. The breath was knocked out of me as some part of the machine's 'arm' caught my stomach. I probably spun with it for two or three times before I was flung away. The next thing I encountered was something very hard right between my shoulder blades. It made a loud, metallic thumping noise, rocked a bit, and then I crumpled to the ground like ragdoll. Still dizzy and numb in some places, I briefly wondered if I had the word "FAIL" tattooed across my forehead.

"Saan!" Ronnie and Aerith exclaimed, while all that came from Barret was, "Dayum!"

_So, that's what I ran into,_ I thought as I coughed and sputtered, trying to catch my breath, _the _truck. I opened my eyes. The ground was the first thing I saw. Considering how that would have been impossible had I been wearing my helmet, I came to the conclusion my suit had deactivated. My eye twitched as I felt someone lift me off the ground. The pain that erupted between my shoulders did not feel good, and I tried my damnedest to glare at Ronnie—the someone—for moving me when there was a chance I could have broken my spine. However, the glare did not intimidate him. Probably because I was spasming and gasping like a fish out of water. And I did not know Morse code so that I could blink it at him in protest.

"Hold still," Ronnie commanded. "You're bleeding."

Bleeding. Taking a quick look at my stomach, I saw that it was perfectly fine. Save for the fact it felt really sore. The suit must have deactivated after I was hit and before I hit the van. Realizing Ronnie had commanded me to hold still like I had a choice in the matter, I glared at him again. _You try not being able to breathe and stay still at the same time!_

Aerith fell to her knees beside me in a praying pose. Still gasping, I gave her the best quizzical look I could give. I wasn't dying, was I? Then, holding her staff over me she cast:

"Cure!"

Immediately, the pain in my shoulders lessened a good deal and I could breathe again. Ah, much better. Forcing Ronnie off of me, I clambered to my feet before he could try and do something disturbing, like hug me to death in his relief. Unfortunately, Aerith was the one I needed to be worried about. She grabbed a hold of my forearm gently. I stared at her in annoyance.

"Are you sure you're okay?" She asked sincerely. "You could still use another Cure spell."

"I've had worse," I grumbled.

Shaking her off, I walked back towards the robot, scanning the ground for my staff. I found it laying next to Red XIII, who had just cast another spell of Fire at the mech. Huffing, I folded my arms in defeat. The staff was too close to the robot and if I ran for it I risked further injury. I also had my doubts about Red being able to _throw_ it to me. For the rest of the battle, I was just going to have to watch from the sidelines.

Cloud was the next to attack the robot. Reaching behind his back, he grabbed the Buster Sword's hilt firmly. He then rushed at the machine and jumped into the air. I was a little surprised when the blade glowed blue. I'd never seen it do that with Zack. With another primal shout, Cloud descended upon the robot. Once again, the weight of the Buster Sword allowed the clunky blade to slice right through the machine, cutting a deep gash from the top of its head to the base. Cloud jumped back to avoid the consequential explosion, caused most likely from him hitting the power supply.

Tifa, Red, and Cloud all stepped back a few feet as the robot suffered more, smaller explosions and then collapsed. It sparked and sputtered, but didn't move after that. The damn thing was finally dead. I heard clapping coming from behind me and turned to see it coming from Ronnie, a big grin on his face. Aerith and Barret looked at him before Aerith, too, began to clap and smile, her rod being held with her elbow. Barret looked a little uncomfortable before he gave in with a shrug.

"Aw, hell, ya did a fine job! There. I said it."

Turning back to face the approaching trio, I refused to clap, smile, or congratulate. Instead, I sulked and decided to be in a foul mood for the rest of the evening just because I could. Tifa took Ronnie's Fire Materia out of her glove and handed it back to him, which he pocketed gladly. Cloud continued to walk past us and stopped when he was a few feet from the edge of the freeway.

"Are you alright, Saan?" Red XIII asked me.

Surprised, I looked down at him, "Yes, thank you."

"Well, what do we now?" Barret asked, walking towards Cloud.

"Sephiroth is alive," Cloud replied, frowning, "I…I have to settle the score."

I cast the blond a sideways glance. How was I to break it to him that what he was chasing wasn't Sephiroth? Or maybe I shouldn't tell him anything, follow along, and let him destroy Jenova anyway. Either way worked for me.

Barret stepped toward the young man, "And that'll save the planet?"

Cloud hesitated for a moment, giving it thought, "…seems like it."

"Awright, I'm going!" Barret declared with a nod.

I resisted the urge to snort. And I thought Zack had crazy dreams. I went from traveling with a kid that wanted to be a hero, to a group that wanted to save the world. Nice.

Aerith walked slowly towards them, "I'll go too. …I have things that I want to find out."

"About the Ancients?" Cloud asked.

That was another thing I was going to have to get situated. I needed to know how much AVALANCHE knew about the Ancients, Jenova, and, well, everything. Tifa started to walk towards the others.

"…Many things," Aerith muttered.

"I guess this's good-bye, Midgar," Tifa said quietly.

_And good riddance,_ I thought. Sighing, I looked around and noticed that there was a conveniently placed crane near the edge. A wire ran down from it, disappearing over the edge of the road. Most likely, it reached the ground, so that they could hoist up more materials and such. Dropping my arms, I walked towards it.

"Right then," I said. "Are we going to stand around and stare at the stars, or are we going to get out of here before any more Shin-Ra appear?"

That seemed to rekindle the gang's fire. Cloud gave me a hard stare. He was determined, if nothing else. He nodded once and looked over his shoulder at the rest of AVALANCHE.

"All right, who's going down first?"

"Down?" Ronnie asked, jogging to reach the rest of us. "Down what?" And then his eyes landed on the crane's wire. "Oh…"

After a brief moment spent staring at each other, daring somebody to go first, Barret eventually volunteered. How in the world he ever made it down the wire, I never knew. The same I could say about Red XIII. I attributed his success to feline characteristics. Aerith went down after Red, followed by Tifa, and then Ronnie. Cloud and I had stared at one another for a while before he all but ORDERED me to go down. I complied easily enough, partly because I wondered if Ronnie had become a pancake on the other end or not.

Thankfully, we all made it to the ground in one piece. Surveying the area, I noticed we were outside Sector 7, as evident by the numbers printed on the door behind us and the mass amount of rubble. I scowled at the scene before re-facing the others.

"...I guess this is the start of our journey..." Tifa said, sounding a little depressed.

"You hate traveling?" Cloud asked.

"...I don't know. But, I don't have anywhere else to go. So I guess it doesn't really matter whether I like to travel or not."

"You know what?" Aerith chirped. "This is the first time I've ever left Midgar..."

"It's dangerous. You sure you want to go?" Cloud asked. It seemed he was doing the leaderly thing and getting the opinions of all his soldiers before they marched into battle.

"I thought you'd say that!" Aerith huffed.

Barret interrupted, "We told Aerith's mom to go somewhere safe, so Marlene should be safe too."

"Yeah, she should be," Cloud nodded. I wondered who Marlene was.

"She said she didn't want to stay in Midgar anymore. ...Maybe it's for the best," Aerith said, trying to comfort Barret.

"Red XIII?" Cloud inquired, turning to face the lion creature.

"I'm going back to my hometown," Red replied, "I'll go with you as far as that."

Cloud then looked at Ronnie and me. "What about you guys?"

"Well, originally I was planning on helping you guys take out Shin-Ra with Saan," Ronnie said and then shrugged, "But, that plan kinda went down the drain. And I'm sure if I went back now, they'd kill me before I could get both feet in the door. So, I'll just do whatever she's doin'." He jerked his thumb in my direction.

I stared at Ronnie for a moment before focusing on Cloud. He was waiting for an answer.

"I'm not worried about Shin-Ra coming after me nor do I particularly care about what happens to this planet. I just want to go after a certain someone, and that takes me in the same direction ya'll are going. So, I'm going with you."

Barret snorted, crossing his arms, "Sounds like a certain someone I know."

"Barret," Tifa chided.

"What?" Barret asked defensively. "She sounds jus' like Spikey here, and you know it! Must be some SOLDIER thang Shin-Ra teaches 'em."

Or some pessimistic thing that people who have gone through hell and back learn. If Cloud remembered just what Hell he'd gone through.

Cloud gave a disapproving stare in Barret's direction before shrugging it off, "Then…Let's go!"

"We need a group leader for our journey. 'Course only me could be the leader," Barret said, punching at the air.

"You think so...?" Tifa asked, clearly amused by his presumption.

Aerith walked towards Cloud, "It would have to be Cloud."

Barret stopped punching at the air, "Fuck...awright. Go Northeast to a town called Kalm. If something happens, we'll meet up there." He plopped down on the ground, "'Sides, we can't have seven people strolling down the fields. It's too dangerous. Split us into 2 parties..."

"I think Tifa, Red XIII, and I should go with Cloud first. Barret should take Aerith and Ronnie with him," I muttered. I was going to make sure I went with Cloud.

Everyone gave me a look.

"Oh, right, _Cloud's_ the leader. Don't mind me."

"Actually," Cloud replied, "that doesn't sound like that bad of a plan. We worked pretty well together earlier, minus Saan's little slip-up—"

_Stare of Death._

"—and we could stay behind Barret's group and watch their backs. What do you guys think?"

Murmurs of consent and nods all around. Barret hopped to his feet. Aerith was already walking away from Midgar. Ronnie gave me a shrug and then trailed after her. Barrett waved at us.

"Later, at Kalm!"

.

.

**A/N: Ya'll are still fave-ing and alerting this after months of it not being updated (lawl, college). And every time this happens, I'm always surprised. So, yes. College has ended and I might be updating more often. Until I get a job. And then I will cry.**

**Juggling characters. Fun, fun. Notice how Aerith said like, nothing, during the first whole half? Blame it on fear of Tifa's driving. The groups will change throughout the fic so that I may include everyone, probably more than once. Unlike a fan fic I've been reading, where the trailer focuses on OMG, SEPHIROTH REBORN (written before Advent Children), but the fic…he just drops off the face of the planet. Not like **_**literally**_** off the face of the Planet, but he is not mentioned for chapters, even though he **_**is**_** there. He's more silent than Vincent! –fume- And Aerith gets barely any limelight either. WTF?**

**On a side note: Who doesn't know anything about Anubis? It's a little shocking to discover someone's read the entirety of the first arc, started on this one, and only knows what he looks like and he comes from Egypt. Not that there's anything wrong with that if you've done that… I will **_**gladly**_** inform you about his myth, or link you to Wikipedia. The story may make a **_**little**_** more sense if you do the research.**

**Reviews much, much, very much appreciated, no one's talking to me on Yahoo at the moment and I need a social life. Look, a shiny that is not mine: www. youtube. com/watch?v=aVl7a0sZ21k**


	4. Memories

**A/N: But I'm not broken, in my dream I win, And I take over, coz I'm no loser, And I'm in and you're not, bad dreams don't stop, But I'm all screwed up, a Cosmic Castaway~! How many Author's Notes you think I can have that start with space references? Song's Cosmic Castaway by Electrasy from the **_**Titan A.E. **_** Soundtrack by the way. In my absence I was bitten on the right forearm by Jerry, took a good week to heal well enough to do anything, and then got one hell of a sinus infection with a fever of 101.7 Fahrenheit. Five days of antibiotics later and some Clariton and I feel as good as I ever will when assaulted by pollen. Thank Anne Rice and **_**Titan A.E.**_** for getting my ass back on track.**

**Kudos: SageofAges729, MiravsStella, Blue Fire Lily, Dreylen, SrgntDrew, Yuleen75.**

**Editor and source of hope: Irish-Brigid.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII. I do however own Ronnie, Saan, Soldier A (the unsung hero of anime~), and part of this plot. The other part is, you know, the original. Of which I do not own. And thus we come full circle.**

The last time I traveled to Kalm had been as a Turk. With me was another Turk whom everybody called Rod. He wasn't that bad of a guy when one ignored the fact he was a bit of a thief and was a former gangster of sorts. Then again, I was a terrorist of sorts, so which one of us was _really_ the bad guy in the long run? My bets are on me.

I do not bring this tidbit of info up to reminisce over a friendship that could have been, or my Turk days, or even the fact that I had previously been to the city we were traveling to. I only mention it because when Rod and I had traveled to Kalm we were on a motorcycle. And with the way Rod drove, it was a very fast motorcycle. It hadn't taken us very long to get to the town at all.

However, now I was traveling on foot. And people only walk roughly three miles per hour, or five kilometres. Not counting the minutes that pass by when fighting the hoards of monsters that make it their business to make us travelers' lives a living hell. Also, the terrain began as rocky, almost canyon-like. The ground beneath our feet stayed solid and very firm for the majority of the trip. Eventually, it did give way to grass, but that only increased the amount of monsters, namely those annoying emus I so loved to hate.

By the time Kalm's imposing, castle-like wall of protection was within sight, I was exhausted, my feet were killing me, and the gang had resolved to let me take care of the monsters just so they would not have to put up with my cranky attitude and non-stop complaining.

Might I add that, though I was a SOLDIER First and a previous fighter pilot, I had been locked up in a tank for five years? Then I was thrust into battle after battle. Received a wonderful wound between my shoulders that was still aching. Forced to walk for _hours_. Have I made it clear that I was beyond pissed? Good.

With Kalm in sight, I somehow managed to pick up my pace. One last burst of energy in the hopes that I could make it to the Inn before collapsing on the floor to never move again. Cloud, Red XIII, and Tifa were a good clip behind me, talking amongst themselves. I didn't bother to eavesdrop. I didn't care what they had to say.

At the outset of our journey, conversations had tried and failed to be held. Cloud and Tifa would ask questions regarding my part in 'all this.' I stubbornly refused to answer them, and no amount of pissy glares from Cloud or worried looks from Tifa would make me crack. I was not about to say anything regarding my past, Sephiroth, or Jenova until I knew where the other two stood.

I could have asked them those questions, questions about _their_ past and relationship to Sephiroth, but that would have gotten me nowhere. They didn't trust me, which I did not blame them for. I wasn't exactly being friendly.

If they didn't trust me, they would not speak the complete truth, and I did not have the willpower to sit through a bunch of white lies. Or full out lies, depending on who said what. And I _would_ be able to tell if they were lying about the Nibelheim Incident. I was there; I knew it all.

On more than one occasion my mind had wandered to the possibility of going back to Shin-Ra. In my haste to destroy all that is evil in the world, or so I liked to tell myself, I never really comprehended what I was getting myself into. Sure, it was possible for me to desert and support all those life-saving ideals of AVALANCHE. I knew I was going to be chased, hunted, after that. I knew I was going to become an enemy of the greatest force on the planet. _I knew what that meant._

Yet, I did not realize what it meant to _be_ with AVALANCHE. Cloud's group was small. It was disorganized. It had low funds. It was just a group of friends with big dreams and no real power to back up anything they did. And now that we had been chased out of Midgar, we were out of reach of all the small comforts the metropolis could provide us. Midgar had given us, or them, all things considered, access to firepower, the train systems, and intel. Even when in hiding, they could still find ways of getting what they needed to attack Shin-Ra.

But now…now we had nothing but our personal weapons and our feet. We would have to ask ignorant citizens information about a man who had been reported dead five years ago. And even when asking for information, we would have to be careful not to tip the populous off to the fact we were terrorists. Realistically, our quest to destroy the greatest SOLDIER that ever lived was shit, and that's if the odds were in our favor.

If I had stayed with Shin-Ra, I could have informed Rufus of what had happened in Nibelheim. I could have told him what Jenova really was, what Sephiroth really was, and that his quest for the Promised Land was beyond stupid and worthless. I could have had access to the Turks, their aircraft, their weapons. I could have actually helped bring together a force that might stand a chance against the alien bitch plaguing their planet. Or, I could have delivered into the hands of a megalomaniac the building blocks for more insane super-soldiers. But that would have been nothing a bullet or two couldn't have remedied.

But, no, I had to do things the hard way. All the things I could have done wouldn't help me now. However, that didn't stop me from wanting to crawl back to Shin-Ra with my head down and tail between my legs like the lap dog that I was.

It was while having the amusing image of me, suited up, grasping a hold of Rufus' pristine white coat while on my knees crying, "Take me back, for the love of _God_," that I noticed the trio behind me had crept closer and their conversation had become quieter. Almost to a whisper. My spidey-senses told me that I was the subject of their dialogue and I had the sinking feeling of suspicion that I was about to be addressed.

Sure enough, moments later, Red XIII spoke up.

"If you do not mind me asking," he asked with his smooth voice, "why did you choose to travel with us instead of your companion? I was under the impression that the two of you were close friends."

I snorted then smiled, "Don't you mean _we're_ asking?"

"No…" Red trailed off, but his tone gave him away.

"Oh, please," I snapped, refusing to take my eyes off the vision of Kalm in front of me, "ya'll have been whispering to yourselves for a while now, most likely trying to goad someone into finally asking the damn question. I'm surprised _you_ were the one to have the balls to finally ask it."

"Just answer the question," Cloud shot back irritably.

Raising a brow, I finally stopped and looked at the group from over my shoulder.

"Ooh," I mocked, "snappy." I paused for a second before replying, "You're not going to like my answer."

Cloud had stopped by then, as well, just a few feet from me. He was a little dirtier than when the trip began, but then again, we all were. Fighting monsters in dry, rocky environment tends to kick up a lot of dust. The blond gave me a hard, determined stare as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. He was challenging me. He had been doing that a lot lately, but then again, I was the member of the group giving him the most grief. I didn't feel like stopping anytime soon, either. And I didn't feel like backing down. If anything, the more he tried to get me under control, the more I felt like toying with him.

I shrugged and then placed my staff on my shoulders, "Fine. You asked for it. You're right; me and him are best friends. Have been since we were kids. And no, I haven't seen him for five years. I really _would_ love to catch up and reminisce and all that jazz."

"Then why didn't you?" Cloud interrupted.

I smiled condescendingly, "Because I'm only one person. I can only be in one place at one time. But with him, we're two people. You split us up into two groups. I'm with one, he's with the other. You do the math."

Cloud frowned. He understood what I meant. So did the other two. I could see it in their shocked and slightly hurt expressions.

"You're _spying_ on us?" Tifa asked.

"I told you you weren't going to like my answer," I replied indifferently.

"Are you still with Shin-Ra?" Cloud asked seriously. "Is that why you stopped me from killing Rufus?"

"She did what?" Tifa asked, snapping her head to Cloud.

"So that's how he got away," Red mumbled.

The smile never left my face, "Now, why would I tell you I was spying on you if I were still with Shin-Ra? Why, you have me…alone…out in the middle of nowhere. There's three of you and one of me. To do something like that would be suicide. And I'm sure Barret would waste no time in filling Ronnie full of lead, what with his disdain for all things Shin-Ra. No, the reason I'm spying on you, Cloud, Tifa, Red XIII, is because I don't trust you. Just as I'm sure you don't trust me. And, this way, we all get to spy on one another like the big ole paranoid group that we are."

"Fair enough," Cloud replied, "but that didn't _really_ answer my question. It actually just sounded like you were trying to avoid the question by telling us something else. Are you still with Shin-Ra?"

I sighed, "I'm with whoever the hell I want to be with. Let's leave it at that."

"You think we're going to trust you when you give us an answer like that?"

"I think you're going to come to trust me, yes. After I tell you how I got to be here and why I'm still here."

The group fell silent. All of them were staring at me as if they expected me to go on. So I did.

"That's what we're going to do, isn't it?" I asked. "Go to Kalm, book the Inn, and reveal to each other the whole reason for this little escapade after Sephiroth? I mean, it'd be foolish to have so many people following you, Cloud, if they didn't even know why they were here; if they didn't know why they should risk their lives for your little vendetta."

"It's not—"

"What it _is_, Cloud, we don't know. That's why we need you to tell us. I'm sure Red's just as curious as I am."

The feline hesitated before admitting, "I _am_ curious…"

"And after that," I continued, "I'll reveal my side of the story. But not before."

"Cloud…" Tifa muttered. It seemed she was worried about something. Oh, the pleasure that gave me.

"Fine," Cloud conceded. "We'll wait until Kalm to hear your story. It's better if everyone hears it together, anyway."

I smiled.

Cloud gave me that hard look again, "But we expect the truth. If we find out you've lied about anything…"

The boy let the threat hang in the air. It only made me laugh.

"The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

So help me God.

—**FFVII—**

The city of Kalm hadn't changed since the last time I visited it. It still had the protective walls worthy of European castles. It still had the blue, stone streets, the stones aligned in large, circular patterns. It still had the impressive, European-styled houses with their blue shingles.

Upon entering the city, the first thing one notices, other than the impressive amount of blue, is the giant metal structure in the center of the main area. The first time I saw it, I didn't know what it was for. With what little knowledge I gained working in Shin-Ra, I now understood it to be some kind of Mako pump. Like a miniature reactor of sorts. It was old and very steampunk, with huge dials and gauges and all that fancy-smancy stuff that I knew nothing about. If I had been born in the nineteenth century, I might have known a little more about what I was seeing. But, I hadn't, and so my best guess was that the structure connected to pipes that ran underground throughout the entire city to carry Mako-power wherever it needed to go. It was strange how something could appear so old-timey while actually being quite complex.

I wanted to go and mess around with it, to see if I could figure out what all the little dials went to, but Cloud's gang had other plans. Red stated the obvious, that we were indeed in Kalm, and then Tifa told Cloud that everyone was in the Inn and we should meet up with them. After my little attitude in the wilderness, there was no way they would allow me to go off on my own and dick around the machine so I reluctantly followed them.

The Inn was like any inn: roomy, a reception area, some stairs. Luckily, Barret's group had already paid for our room and we were allowed to go on upstairs. Sure enough, Barret, Aerith, and Ronnie were waiting on us. Ronnie was spread out on one of the _three_ beds, staring at the ceiling like a dead man. All things considered, he was probably more exhausted than I was. I pushed my way past Cloud and Tifa and made my way to Ronnie.

"Cloud, you're late!" Aerith chided as I plopped down near Ronnie's head.

He looked at me, but that was it. Yes, he was tired. I rolled my eyes at him and leaned over to place my staff against the wall. I'd already deactivated my suit just before entering town to avoid all those wonderful stares from the common folk.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Cloud replied.

"Guess everyone's here now," Aerith said.

"So let's hear your story... You know, the one about Sephiroth and the crisis facing the planet. Let's hear it all," Barret added.

"Yes, let's, Cloud. We're all ears," I grinned sardonically.

Cloud gave me a brief, annoyed look. Feeling Ronnie's weight shift, I looked down beside me. He was leaning his head back to look at me. His eyebrows were creased in confusion and worry. _What's wrong?_ He mouthed to me. I shook my head, telling him to drop the subject and that I was fine. Turning my attention back to Cloud, I saw that he was looking at the ground, lost in memories.

Finally, he raised his head and looked at Barret, "...I used to want to be like Sephiroth, so I joined SOLDIER. After working with Sephiroth on several missions, we became friends."

Not even one paragraph out of his mouth and he was already lying. The sad thing was the he didn't know that he was. I could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. He honestly believed what he was saying. And because of that, I allowed him to keep going. I feared the tale was only going to get worse the further he went.

"You call that a friend?" Barret snorted.

"Yeah, well... He's older than me, and he hardly ever talked about himself."

Well, that was one thing he got right.

"So I guess you'd call him a war buddy... We trusted each other. Until one day..." Cloud trailed off.

"...one day?" Aerith asked.

Cloud dropped his arms to his side and walked to the opposite wall. "After the war it was SOLDIER's duty to put down any resistance against the Shin-Ra. ...that was 5 years ago. I was 16..."

It was all there. The truck, the rain, most of the words that we said to each other. Only a few things were wrong, and they were important things. I wasn't there. Normally, that would have bothered me, but the distress I usually felt at being forgotten was overruled by the horror caused by realizing Cloud had replaced Zack in his own mind. In fact, Cloud wasn't there at all. Not in his cadet form at least. And Zack hadn't fought the dragon. Not in Cloud's mind. In Cloud's mind, it was him. I caught myself about to place my head in my hands, about to mutter my disbelief. But I couldn't interrupt now; I had to listen to all of it.

"Sephiroth's strength is unreal." Cloud said after he described the fight with the dragon. "He is far stronger in reality than any story you might have heard about him."

"So...Where did you come in?" Aerith giggled.

Cloud scratched the back of his head, "Me? I was mesmerized by the way Sephiroth fought."

Tifa shifted uncomfortably as she stood on Cloud's left. I watched her for a moment. I thought back to when we were in Nibelheim. I wasn't sure that Cloud had ever revealed himself to Tifa. I remembered the little talk between him and Zack about her, and how he hadn't spoken to her, but I didn't know what had happened after that. Jerry and I had gone to the Mansion shortly afterwards and we didn't pry into Zack's and Cloud's business after that. We were too busy worrying about Sephiroth. It was possible Tifa didn't even know Cloud had been in Nibelheim that week. If that were the case, Cloud's story was really mind-blowing to her. And she knew he was lying. Why didn't she call him on it?

"...and then we reached Nibelheim."

Entering the city. Once again, Cloud was Zack. He remembered the conversation about hometowns right, but he wasn't who he was. He remembered Sephiroth talking about his mother, Jenova, and about Hojo. The laugh he gave when he couldn't believe he was talking about such things. His remark about how bad the Mako smell was.

"Yo wait a minute!" Barret shouted, "Isn't that, um...? The name of Sephiroth's mother... I remember Jenova. That's the damn headless spook livin' in the Shin-Ra building."

"The one that got out," I added darkly.

"Okay, that's beyond creepy," Ronnie muttered quietly. The entire time Cloud had been talking, Ronnie had been listening with interest. I was going to have to tell him what really happened later.

"Barret, would you please let us hear what Cloud has to say? You can ask questions later," Tifa said suddenly.

Barret frowned, "Tifa, I was only..."

Tifa ignored him and looked back to Cloud, "Okay Cloud, continue."

"It's a reunion of childhood pals!" Aerith chirped happily. Perhaps a little too happily for the situation.

"...I was really surprised with Tifa. ...The town was quiet. Everyone must be staying in their houses, afraid to come out because of the monsters. No, maybe they're afraid of us..."

Sephiroth told us we would leave at dawn. We'd need plenty of rest. Only one look-out was needed. Cloud visited Tifa, but she wasn't home. He visited his mother. Barret and Aerith particularly wanted to hear that part, but for some reason, Cloud seemed odd when talking about it. And then he just stopped, shook his head, and went on.

Sephiroth remarked about the scenery looking familiar. A memory I thought only I had. Had Zack asked him something similar? Had Zack overheard? Sephiroth told "Cloud" about Tifa being the guide. The next day we woke up and they had their picture taken. Sephiroth, "Cloud," and Tifa. On the way to the reactor, the bridge broke.

The next part, I didn't know what was real and what wasn't. I had gone after Jerry after the bridge broke, while Sephiroth, Zack, Tifa, and Cloud had moved on without me. Cloud talked about a Materia fountain. Sephiroth had to explain to him how Materia tapped into the knowledge of the Ancients to produce Magic.

And then they moved on. Once at the reactor, Cloud, the real Cloud, had to stay behind and keep Tifa from getting inside because that was Shin-Ra's regulations. No one but Shin-Ra employees could enter the facility. Sephiroth and "Cloud" discovered odd tanks, and inside these tanks were monsters. Monsters that at one time had been people, perhaps SOLDIERS. Sephiroth freaked. He thought he had been created like them. There was no mention of Genesis from Cloud, but I knew he'd been there because Zack had told me.

I was starting to wonder why Cloud remembered some things from himself, others from Zack, and how he forgot other details entirely. Something had to have happened after I jumped into the reactor, and as Cloud continued with his narrative, I desperately wracked my mind to try and discover what that something could have been.

"Damn, Shin-Ra!" Barret shouted. I nearly jumped out of my skin. That's what I get for residing in my thoughts.

"The more I hear, the more I hate 'em!"

"...who would have ever thought the Mako Reactor held a secret like that," Tifa said dejectedly.

"I'm a Turk, and I didn't even realize it was that bad," Ronnie added, almost as disturbed as Tifa.

"That would seem to explain the increase in the number of monsters recently," Red said. "I think we should listen carefully to Cloud. Don't you think so Barret?"

"Why you talkin' to me!" Barret whispered angrily at the creature. He then turned back to Cloud, "Hmph! Pokin' his damn nose in where it don't belong. Cloud! Why don't you finish that story?"

"It _would_ be kind of stupid to stop now," I added.

"Tifa... You were waiting outside then?" Aerith asked, obviously trying to get the ball rolling again.

"...Yes."

"We returned to Nibelheim," Cloud said. "Sephiroth confined himself at the inn. He didn't even try to talk to me."

"Then all of a sudden he just disappeared, right?" Tifa asked.

Cloud nodded, "We found him inside the biggest building in Nibelheim."

"The villagers used to call it Shin-Ra mansion," Tifa replied.

"Long ago, people from Shin-Ra used to live in that mansion..."

Of course it wasn't Zack or me that went to the mansion, but Cloud. He found Sephiroth in the basement, which was accessible by a hidden door in one of the bedrooms. All the information that Zack and I had overheard Sephiroth say was in Cloud's little head, word for word. He could even describe the lab tables, the Mako tanks in the back, the weird instruments strewn about the place. It was eerie.

But what was horrifying was what came next. He remembered the bedroom that Jerry and I had stayed in. He remembered going down to the basement again and having a conversation with Sephiroth that I knew, without a doubt, I had had. The words Cloud used were all accurate, right down to Sephiroth calling me a traitor and even some of my replies.

I had to clasp my hands together and place them against my mouth to keep them from shaking. At first I had simply been annoyed by Cloud's memory switch, but now I was terrified. I was beyond terrified, I was panicking. How did he know so much about things that had never happened to him? How did he have my memories yet have no memory of me? Or Zack! What on Gaia could do such a thing?

"Are you all right?" Ronnie asked me, rubbing my back, trying to comfort me.

Of course, everyone had to stare at me after the question. I shrugged my shoulder to make Ronnie stop and then brought my right leg up, hugging my knee.

"I'm fine," I said, though my nervousness was betrayed by my voice. "Keep going."

Cloud frowned a little, but he did keep going. He went into a part of the story I knew nothing about. Jerry and I had stayed behind in Nibelheim, trying to save people, while Cloud, Zack, and Tifa had all gone after Sephiroth. What Cloud related was, if I was correct, Zack's point of view.

He chased Sephiroth to the reactor. Tifa had found her father dead on the reactor floor, Sephiroth's sword lying near him. She grabbed the sword and meant to attack Sephiroth. A foolish move. He easily wrenched the sword from her and sliced her across the chest. She fell down the stairs like a ragdoll. Zack, or Cloud, moved her to the side. That explained why I hadn't noticed her that night. I was so focused on Cloud and Zack, I didn't think of anyone else being in the reactor.

"Cloud" confronted Sephiroth. Sephiroth was in front of Jenova. He ripped the statue away from her.

_What about MY sadness! My family...friends...The sadness of having my hometown taken away from me! It's the same as your sadness!_

That had to have been Cloud. It obviously didn't apply to Zack.

Sephiroth laughed at him, _My sadness? What do I have to be sad about? I am the chosen one. I have been chosen to be the leader of this planet. I have orders to take this planet back from you stupid people for the Cetra. What am I supposed to be sad about?_

_Sephiroth...I trusted you... No, you're not the Sephiroth I used to know!_

But Cloud didn't know Sephiroth that well. He'd never trusted him. That had to have been Zack.

I remembered their fallen bodies on the reactor stairs leading up to Jenova's chamber. Zack had been in a fight, that was obvious. Cloud had been gravely injured. It was possible that Zack had fought Sephiroth, lost, and Cloud had tried to finish him. Maybe that was why both their memories were coming through for the same moment. But why did Cloud have Zack's memories in the first place, let alone mine?

"...and that's the end of my story."

"What?" I asked, snapping out of my thoughts and quite surprised not to have an ending.

"Wait a damn minute! Ain't there more?" Barret asked.

"...I don't remember."

"What happened to Sephiroth?" Aerith asked.

Cloud replied, "In terms of skill, I couldn't have killed him."

"Official records state Sephiroth is dead. I read it in the newspaper," Tifa supplied.

"Shin-Ra Inc. owns the paper," Aerith replied, "so you can't rely on that information."

"...I want to know the truth," Cloud said at length. "I want to know what happened then. I challenged Sephiroth and lived. Why didn't he kill me?"

And that's when I decided I couldn't keep my big mouth shut.

"He did try to kill you," I almost whispered, staring down at the floor with my elbows on my knees.

"What?" Cloud asked. From where he was across the room, I was surprised he heard me at all. But then again, from his eyes, it was obvious he had Mako in his veins. Who knew how good his hearing was?

Taking a shaky breath, I repeated a little louder, "He did try to kill you. You got lucky."

"Whoa, wait, wait, wait," Barret interjected, shaking his head as he looked at me, "How do you know what happened to Cloud?"

I looked up at the group of faces staring at me in confusion and suspicion. I was trying to determine how much I wanted them to know. I was trying to determine what I could say that wouldn't set Cloud's already fragile mind to the breaking point. My conclusion was to go for as much of the truth as possible and cover up any loose ends with excuses and theories should the need arise.

"How about I start at the beginning?" I replied. "Now, I'm not going to go as detailed as Cloud did, and I'm going to be going pretty fast. Either pay attention and keep up, or you'll be left in the dark. I am not going to repeat myself. Ronnie and I came to Midgar looking for a plane of mine that Shin-Ra kidnapped. _Do not_ interrupt me, Barret," I said as I glared at the man. He quickly, albeit irritably, closed his mouth. I continued, "This was about seven years ago, or so. In hindsight, Midgar would not have been the place they would have taken my aircraft, since the airport is at Junon, but we didn't know that and so we went to the Shin-Ra Building in the nearest town. My plan was to sneak in, get my plane, and bust my way out. That plan didn't get very far.

"We did sneak in, through the same staircase ya'll did, and we were captured at the top of the stairs. They threw us in jail, much like they did you. Well, the Turks were a little intrigued by our determination to sneak into the Shin-Ra building with phony I.D. cards and offered us a job. We took it because we didn't want to rot in jail."

"Actually, I just wanted the suits," Ronnie added, shrugging. I stared at him.

"I thought you said you were SOLDIER?" Barret asked.

"Getting to that," I hissed. "As I was saying, we became Turks. I sucked ass at it. I didn't much like the idea of going around killing people—" Barret snorted, "—and I made a habit of botching my missions, which were few and far between. Eventually, they signed me up for guard duty watching over the President's son."

"You were the bodyguard for Rufus?" Tifa asked, genuinely surprised.

"One of them, yes. For a week."

"Is that why you saved him earlier?" Cloud pressed.

"She did what?" Barret asked.

I ignored him, "That might have had something to do with it, yes. But you're bringing me off topic. An incident occurred in Junon—"

"Rufus tried to kill Saan and I kinda tried to kill him," Ronnie interjected. Aerith gasped.

My hand hit my forehead with a loud smack and I drug it down my face. "He _wasn't_ going to kill me and you tried to explode his head. His actions were justified."

"He pointed a gun at your face! A _shot gun_! Do you have any idea what would have happened to your head if he'd pulled the trigger?"

"Yes!" I shouted in exasperation. "That is not the point! It's not like that was the first time I'd had a gun pointed at my face."

"He's pointed a gun at your face before?" Ronnie shrieked in horror.

"No!" I snapped. "Just shut up!" Taking a deep breath, I focused my attention on the rest of the group, daring anyone else to interrupt me. When it looked safe to keep going, I did, "_There was an incident in Junon_ and we were brought before the President to get yelled at. Well, Rufus made light of the situation and somehow the President thought it would be a good idea to have me bodyguard him instead.

"For this assignment, I was paired with Sephiroth. This was my first time meeting the man and he was a little intimidating at first. But, after I got over the fact he wasn't giving me the cold shoulder and that he was just socially awkward I loosened up a bit. I tried to joke with him a little about the President's incompetence, but that's like trying to joke with a brick wall. Anyway, AVALANCHE attacked and I wound up getting shot trying to save the President."

"AVALANCHE?" Aerith asked.

"The old AVALANCHE," Tifa answered. "They did things a little…differently than we do."

"They got things done," Barret replied.

"They killed innocent people," I shot back.

Barret grumbled.

"So, you got shot, what then?" Cloud asked.

"Sephiroth healed her," Ronnie replied. "He had some pretty strong Materia, as Cloud's mentioned. He was like _zap_ and she was instantly healed."

I turned slowly to look at my friend, pointed at my face, and said, "My story."

"Sorry," Ronnie muttered, bowing his head.

"Thank you. Sephiroth saved me with his wonderful Curaga spell and I wound up spending some time in the hospital from blood loss. Well, the President wanted to meet with me afterwards, I don't remember why. Probably because I'd tried to warn him of the attack, because Rufus had warned me cryptically just before we'd left the Shin-Ra Building, and he hadn't believe me. After I'd been shot, the fat fucker ran off and got shot himself. Ronnie thought he wanted to thank me or something. Blah, blah, blah. I ran into Sephiroth again and we went to meet the President. In the President's office, while Sephiroth was talking about some elf chick, I picked up this really nifty looking armband thing."

Here I paused to raise my arm and show everyone the armlet that started it all. Satisfied that the gang was still with me, I dropped my arm and continued.

"Because I'm so smart, I put this armband on my arm and _snap_! It attached itself to me. I flipped the fuck out, as you can imagine. I was a piece of shit Turk who couldn't do anything right to save her life and I had probably just stolen some piece of important technology. Hojo, whom I'm sure you all know, took that opportune moment to sneak up behind me and scare the living hell out of me. This scare made me force the suit, which you've all seen on me, to activate.

"The President didn't know what it was, Sephiroth didn't know what it was, and Hojo had a vague clue. After a few minutes of me demanding they remove the damn thing, it was agreed by the President and Hojo that I was to be a guinea pig for Hojo and SOLDIER."

Red XIII looked like he shuddered, "Hojo is a madman."

"Yes, one I'd like to destroy in the most painful way possible. But I digress. I was put into the SOLDIER program. I was trained mostly by myself, but I had some help from a First named Zack and Sephiroth."

Aerith perked up, "So it was you!"

Everyone looked at her.

"Wait, you know her?" Cloud asked, pointing at me.

Aerith nodded slowly, frowning a little, "I wasn't sure if it was her when we found her in the Shin-Ra building. I'd never seen her with that…suit…before. And I'd only met her once before. But, back then, she said she worked with Zack. I didn't think she meant she was SOLDIER. Her eyes…weren't the same."

I nodded, "That's because I didn't have the Mako injections."

"All SOLDIERs have Mako injections," Cloud replied, narrowing his eyes at me suspiciously.

"Not this one," I said. "When Hojo tried to test my tolerance, I had a major reaction to it. I couldn't have the injections because they would have killed me. But, the President wanted my suit put to use, so I was still allowed into the SOLDIER program…after proving myself with a few battles on the Virtual Reality simulator."

"They have those kinds of things?" Barret asked, impressed.

"Shin-Ra has a lot of big toys and nothing really to do with them. Have you seen the canon at Junon?" I asked.

"It's _huge_," Ronnie added.

"It's ridiculously huge," I replied. "But I'm getting off topic again. I eventually made it to First, though I was allowed to cheat a little. President's orders, you understand. I went on a few big missions here and there. The last of which…was Nibelheim."

Oh, that got a reaction. Shock, confusion, anger. Most of these emotions directed at me from Cloud. I knew he was going to argue with me, and I was ready to stick up for myself. Or at least try to. It might not have helped my case that Ronnie was nodding beside me.

"Wait, you went with Cloud to Nibelheim?" Barret asked. "He didn't mention you."

"Because she wasn't there," Cloud almost growled. "She's lying."

"I am not lying," I replied calmly, looking him in the eyes. "I wasn't supposed to go on the mission, but Hojo had said something a few minutes before Sephiroth and you all left, and I forced Sephiroth to take me along." I chuckled, "I threatened to call him every minute of every day if he didn't. He wasn't too pleased with me for that. Please, Cloud, just listen, that's all I ask."

He had been about to protest again. The anger rolling off him was almost unbelievable, but I had to understand things from his point of view. He honestly did not remember me, and here I was saying I had been with him when his entire home had been destroyed. I don't think I would have been too happy, either. But I needed him to listen. I at least needed Tifa to listen. If I could break through to her, maybe she could somehow set Cloud straight.

Amazingly, the boy silenced himself. He did not, however, stop glaring.

"I went with you to Nibelheim. I didn't help fight the dragon because my suit was giving me problems. It acts odd when around Jenova, don't ask me why. I remember entering Nibelheim. I remember running into Tifa. I remember going across that bridge and it breaking. The SOLDIER that was lost, he didn't die, I saved him. We stayed at the Mansion with Sephiroth; we watched over him. And then he snapped and destroyed your hometown. That SOLDIER and I tried to save those we could before running after you and Tifa. I remember running into the reactor and finding you with a wound in your back that went straight through. I don't know what happened to you exactly, but I know that Sephiroth _was_ thrown into the Reactor that day _by you_. I know because I jumped into the Reactor after Sephiroth."

"You're lying," was all Cloud replied with. He was almost livid.

Ronnie opened his mouth to object, but I silenced him with a wave of my arm.

"She's gotta be," Barret muttered, crossing his arms, "ain't no reason for Spikey to lie about his own hometown burnin'."

"I'm not saying he's lying," I replied. "You can see it in his face that he's not."

"So you admit you're lying?" Cloud snapped.

"No," I said calmly, "I am merely telling you what I _remember_."

I took a quick look at Tifa. She was looking at me with wide eyes. She looked almost afraid. She knew I was telling the truth. I had been at Nibelheim. Whether or not she believed me about Cloud's involvement, I didn't know. But I had her thinking. And I think that terrified her because I could ruin Cloud's reality.

"Well, your _memory_ is messed up. You weren't in Nibelheim, and I don't like you toying with me."

Once again Ronnie tried to object, and once again I silenced him. I knew he could back up my claims. He obviously knew I'd gone to Nibelheim. However, I didn't want him ruining my plan. I revealed to Cloud as much as I did, making sure to leave out Zack's involvement in that particular case, so that maybe the kid would remember me. And, if he remembered me, it was only a small step for him to remember Zack and his actual role in the Nibelheim Incident. But, that plan didn't work. Cloud was die-hard set on believing his faulty memories, which I still hadn't determined a cause for. I was left with no other alternative but to backtrack. It wasn't like I could take back all I'd said, but I could cover it up—sweep it under the rug—if I played my cards right.

I sighed loudly, "You're right, and I'm not trying to toy with you. I wouldn't gain from doing such a thing. But I'm like you now; I want to know the truth. I want to know why I _remember_ things that you say never happened."

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Cloud retorted, but I could tell his anger was subsiding. Very slowly.

"Perhaps…" Red spoke up from his corner. Everyone turned to face him. "Perhaps, when you were inside the Mako, your memories were altered? You and your friend _did_ say you have been in there for five years. That time frame coincides with the destruction of Cloud and Tifa's home. Is it not possible that you fell into the Mako and that your memories somehow mixed with those who were in the Reactor at the time? You say that Sephiroth fell into the Reactor. Perhaps you drew your memories from him?"

I stared at the lion in disbelief, "…It _is_ possible."

"Can something like that even happen?" Tifa asked.

Aerith shook her head, "I'm not sure. Maybe. People weren't meant to be bathed or injected in Mako, I know that much."

"Psh, tell that to Shin-Ra," Barret grumbled.

I stood up suddenly, leaned over, and grabbed my staff from its resting place against the wall. Ronnie pushed himself off the bed and followed me as I walked past the group.

"Where are you going?" Cloud asked as I passed him.

I stopped for a moment, casting him a sideways glance, "To go think about my muddled mind. I'll be back in a few hours, don't worry." I hesitated a moment before adding, "I didn't mean to offend you earlier."

He frowned at me, but it appeared he accepted my apology. With a short nod, I walked down the stairs. I didn't stop to answer when Ronnie asked me where I was going and I didn't slow down. Red XIII had brought up an interesting idea, and I wanted to think about it more. To do that, I needed to get away from Cloud and the others. The only muse I needed was Ronnie. He was good at bouncing ideas off of. Plus, I needed to tell him what _really_ happened in Nibelheim, and then find out from him what had happened to Shin-Ra in my absence.

.

.

.

**A/N: Yeah, this is kinda a short chapter for me, but if I don't break here while I can, you will be faced with another one of my god chapters. And believe me, you do not want that. Sorry that this was all talking, and the next one doesn't really have any action either. But hey, the game's like that too. Because I'm in the middle of my Mental Chapter, the next update shall be in a day or two. I've been writing non-stop (sans dinner) for eight hours now. So, yes.**

**I kinda revealed more to Cloud and gang than I wanted to right off the bat, but I figured I'd just go ahead and get it out of the way before Saan exploded and strangled Tifa or something equally fatal.**

**Questions, comments, I will gladly answer you. And sometimes you will get pages of a reply, as Yuleen75 now knows. I love you anyway :D.**

**Chapter title comes from Memories by Within Tempation. Listen to it. Nao.**


	5. Secrets

**A/N: Well, since SrgntDrew is threatening to shoot me in the face with a SHOT GUN, I guess I should stop watching Crispin Freeman and get back to you guys. And, I agree, pointing guns at each other's faces **_**is**_** the universal sign of friendship and everyone should know it. –snort-**

**Months later: Low down on my profile. I'm sitting in the living room listening to my grandmother comment on John Morrison's ass. :/ That's a wrestler on RAW for all those who don't know. Which is probably all of you.**

**Kudos: Blue Fire Lily, SrgntDrew, Dreylen, HowYouRemindMe, Gureifox. And all ya'll others. **

**Editor: Irish-Brigid. Pseudo-Psychiatrist Extraordinaire -nod-  
Critic: Yuleen75. I finally have a critic. I'm movin' up in the world!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII. I do, however, own this plot, Ronnie, Saan, and Jerry. Oops, did I let something slip? …I am such an ass.**

**.**

**.**

I made my way quickly out of the Inn. My destination: the Mako pump in the center of town. I wasn't going to mess with it like I had wanted to do upon our arrival. No, I just needed some place to idly stand by while I gathered my thoughts and relived parts of my life I really wished had never happened. What better place to do that than the middle of town? Think of it as standing by the water cooler in the office. Plus, if I happened to become angry, I could take out my anger on the machinery…instead of someone's head.

Once there, I placed my staff against the big, domed portion of the structure and ran my hands through my hair.

"Okay, what was that about?" I heard Ronnie ask as he stood behind me. "Do you honestly not remember what happened in Nibelheim, or what? Because you were there, I was with Hojo when they found you."

Refusing to remove my hands from my head I replied, "I was lying. I don't actually believe anything I said about messed up memories. At least where I'm concerned."

"Then why did you lie?" Ronnie asked.

Dragging my hands down my face, I turned to face Ronnie. He wasn't just confused, he was upset. I dropped my arms, slapping my palms against my thighs.

"Because he's _insane_?" I shrugged. "Almost everything he said that happened _did_ happen, only it wasn't him. Like, he was there, but he was just a grunt. Hell, you know that!"

"I do?"

"Yes! You've met him before, remember? On that mission to Modeoheim when the helicopter crashed?"

"Oh yeah, I remember that," Ronnie said. Then he frowned, "Wait, Cloud was that blond guy? Wow, he changed."

"You think?"

"So, Cloud fought Sephiroth, but he wasn't in SOLDIER, he was a grunt?"

"No. Well, yes, I guess he did 'fight' Sephiroth, but not… Ugh," I groaned, pulling at my hair. "Okay, let's start at the beginning, shall we? On the day I left for Nibelheim, I'd left the house in a hurry and forgot my phone."

"I remember that part," Ronnie grumbled, crossing his arms. "I couldn't reach you for days. And then I finally found your phone on your end table."

"So that's where I put it… Not important." Shaking my head, I continued, "I went to the Shin-Ra Building, to the Virtual Reality room on the SOLDIER floor. I wanted to get some practice in. Well, I didn't know what the hell I was doing, so I just hit random buttons to load a program."

"I bet that ended well."

"Oh, it did," I said sarcastically. "I fought Sephiroth."

Ronnie's eyes widened, "…Did you win?"

"Hell, no!" I shouted. "He kicked my ass, nearly broke my spine, and gave me this wonderful scar under my eye."

"I was wondering about that…" And then as an afterthought, Ronnie added, "You really can't tell it's there."

"Not helping," I replied. "Anyways, I managed to deactivate the program before Sephiroth killed me. And guess who I see at the controls?"

Ronnie stared at me intently. Seconds passed.

"You're not going to guess, are you?" I asked a little disappointed.

"…Genesis?"

My palm hit my forehead for the second time that day, "You are _really_ bad at guessing games."

"What?" He asked defensively, "There was a reason I didn't want to say anything!"

"Hojo," I breathed. "Hojo was at the controls."

"What was he doing?"

"Fucking with my life. What does he normally do? It was obvious he was the one who uploaded the Sephiroth program because, before, I had been fighting Wutai troops. Sephiroth kinda doesn't fit in with that equation. Well, I was beyond pissed at that point and I…kinda…attacked Hojo."

"Sonya!" Ronnie scolded, mouth open in shock.

"What? All I did was choke-slam him into the wall and then threaten to slice the flesh off his face. No big deal. And I was justified! I overheard the little fucker talking about Jenova cells being in my armband. After all the shit that happened with Angeal and Genesis, do you think I liked hearing that I might have alien cells infesting my body? No. And I made sure that Hojo knew it, too."

"So…" Ronnie hesitated, eyes glancing at the few people on the street before lighting back on me. "Do you have alien cells in your body?"

"Probably. Most likely. I don't really want to think about that. So, I threaten Hojo and he mentions something about Nibelheim and Sephiroth. Like, 'Too bad you're not going with him,' or something like that. He was alluding to the Jenova cells, and Nibelheim, and something about information. I don't really remember. I was too busy trying not to kill him. Which was a lot harder than it sounds, by the way.

"Whatever Hojo said had me worried that Sephiroth was going to go to Nibelheim, find out he was an alien or something, and do something drastic. …Which he kind of did. After asking Cloud and then Zack where Sephiroth was, I found him in Lazard's old office. I demanded that he take me with him to Nibelheim."

"You demanded Sephiroth to take you with him?" Ronnie asked. "And he _didn't_ kill you?"

"No. He just glared at me really hard. You know, he wasn't as mean as everyone makes him out to be," I frowned.

"He roasted Cloud's hometown…"

"But that was _after_… Geh. Can we just go in chronological order, please? So, we went to Nibelheim. Cloud, Sephiroth, Zack, Jerry, some random cadet, and I. Right before the dragon attack Cloud mentioned, my suit went wonky and I heard this _horrendous_ screeching noise in my head. Long story short, Zack and Sephiroth fought the dragon while I was terrified of using my suit because the noise had hurt so much."

"But Cloud said he fought the dragon with Sephiroth," Ronnie interjected.

"Exactly!" I exclaimed. "Cloud's crazy! I was there in the truck with them, and he doesn't even remember me being there. Cloud didn't fight the dragon, he just watched with me and Jerry at the sidelines. In fact, almost everything Cloud said was from _Zack's point of view_. Except for that part where Sephiroth was talking about traitors while in the Mansion's basement. _That_ was from _my _point of view."

Ronnie's eyes widened as he frowned, "You're saying Cloud remembers things that happened to both Zack and you, but he has no recollection of you two at all?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying! But even those memories are faulty. Cloud didn't mention Genesis at all."

"Genesis was there?"

"Genesis was one of the main reasons we went to Nibelheim. Yes, there were reports of monsters breaking out, but Shin-Ra also suspected Genesis had moved his cloning machine there. Or something to that effect. He was actually after the Jenova cells to prevent him from degrading further. He confronted Sephiroth about Jenova being a monster and, with Sephiroth believing Jenova was his mother, the General wasn't too pleased with that info.

"That's when Sephiroth locked himself in the Shin-Ra Mansion and did all that research. Jerry and I were in the Mansion with him. We were like watchdogs to make sure he didn't try anything. Hell, we even cooked his meals! I don't know what Zack and Cloud did while we were there. It's possible that Cloud did check in with his mother. It's actually pretty likely. I mean, yeah he hid from Tifa, but why would he hide from his mom?"

"Wait, if Cloud hid from Tifa, then why does he have all those memories of talking with her?" Ronnie asked.

"The memories Cloud has of talking with Tifa are _Zack's_ memories. In reality, Cloud kept his helmet on like a little wimp and wouldn't approach her. Don't ask me why, I don't know," I replied.

Actually I had a pretty good guess why he kept his helmet on, and it was that theory that made me call him a wimp.

Ronnie walked to stand beside me, "But if Cloud hid from Tifa, and everything he's saying is a lie, wouldn't Tifa realize that Cloud hadn't been there—to her knowledge—and say something about it?"

Rubbing my face, I slouched forward, "That's what I don't get. She _knows_ he didn't do the things he says he did. She _knows_ that Zack and I were there. But she refuses to acknowledge it."

"Maybe," Ronnie began, "she's afraid that if she says anything he'll snap? Like when you tried to tell him what really happened and he got really angry with you. And I'd just like to say that I don't think you should do that again when there's a man with a gun for an arm in the room. I was terrified Barret was going to blow our heads off for a second there."

I snorted, "I'd like to see him try. But, no, I don't think Cloud would get angry with Tifa. Not like that. He trusts Tifa. They're childhood friends. No, I think if Tifa tried to tell him the truth, he'd become extremely troubled. Like the opposite side of the rainbow of mental snaps. …Does that make sense?"

"No," he admitted, "but I get what you're trying to say. Though I'm now trying to picture Cloud's mental rainbow."

I glared half-heartedly at him before pushing myself away from the metallic structure behind us. I started to pace.

"Tifa may be afraid of injuring Cloud, which is understandable. I know what it feels like to have something you believe in whole-heartedly get smashed into oblivion. I've seen what having one's very existence challenged can do to a person. …Neither one of them should have to be put through that. Which is why I pretended to be the crazy one."

Ronnie frowned in distaste, "So you're going to stick with Red XIII's idea of your memories merging with Sephiroth's while you were in the Mako?"

"Yes," I said plainly, turning to walk back the other way. "Though that begs the question of how the hell that could happen to Cloud." Pausing, I turned to look at Ronnie, "Do you know anything about what happened to Cloud and Zack after I jumped into the Reactor?"

Ronnie paused for a long moment, gaze never once lowering from mine. He knew. He knew or he wouldn't have been silent for so long. He was just running through his head what to tell me and what to keep secret. I frowned.

"What?" I asked. "I know you know something."

He sighed and looked at the ground, wrenching his hands together. "You're not going to like it."

"When have I ever?"

"Touché. All right," he said, taking a deep breath. "The Turks were trailing you guys. Watching to make sure Sephiroth didn't run off and join Genesis. Serafina…at least, I think that was the name she went by… But, anyway, she called the Boss and told him about the town being destroyed, that a grunt and SOLDIER had been seriously injured, that Sephiroth and Anubis had fallen into the Reactor. The Turks were sent out as reinforcements. Hojo came with. I still find it odd that he had responded so fast."

"That's because he knew something was going to happen," I whispered angrily. "The greasy bastard."

"Well, anyway. Cloud—I didn't know that that was him at the time—and Zack were examined by Hojo." Ronnie paused again for a moment and I knew what was coming next. "They became his experiments. I don't know what they did with them, or for how long. You were found in a Mako fountain in the caves. Your suit protected you which _really_ ticked off Hojo. They brought you back to the Shin-Ra building for 'further testing' and 'protection of the President's assets' or some shit like that.

"Not too long ago, the Turks were ordered to chase after two specimens that had fled from Nibelheim. We had orders to destroy them. Tseng knew all the details, I didn't," Ronnie shrugged. "I don't know which one of us Turks found Zack and Cloud, but by the time they reached them, it was too late. The Army found them first. Zack was killed. Cloud was gone."

I looked down at the bricked street beneath my feet, "So that's it. And that's how Cloud has Zack's sword. What I saw in the Mako…but why does Cloud not even remember that?"

"He suppressed it?" Ronnie asked. "It's not uncommon for the mind to suppress painful memories so it can continue to function."

"Hmm," I hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe… We have to go back to Nibelheim. We're never going to figure all of this out if we don't. It all started there and there's a good chance it'll end there, as well."

Ronnie gave me a disapproving look again, "And you're going to follow AVALANCHE the entire way while lying to their leader about his past and pretending that _you're_ the one with the messed up mind?"

"Yes," I answered as I looked at him.

"I don't know, Saan," Ronnie said. "That seems…wrong."

"…It does, doesn't it?"

We lapsed into silence. My eyes once again found the ground. It _was_ wrong, what I was going to do to Cloud, but there was no other way in my mind. I was going to feel like shit the entire journey to wherever the hell we were going for lying to him, but I could handle it. Cloud might not have been able to. That little joke about "you can't handle the truth" actually applied to him. I had tried to jog his memory and I had failed. I threatened to break his small hold on reality. I really didn't want to know the consequences if I managed to do such a thing. Plus, I don't think Zack would have liked it if I mind-fucked his buddy.

Ronnie shifted suddenly. I looked up from the ground just in time to catch his startled expression. He was looking behind me, his mouth open, ready to shout something. But whatever it was that he wanted to shout just wouldn't come. That's when I noticed the sound of stomping footsteps coming towards me from behind. "Oh, God, what?" were the first words that came to mind, but instead what came out was a scream as I felt someone's arms latch around my waist and hoist me off the ground.

"Rape!" was my next coherent thought but, again, all that came out was a scream as I flailed my arms around and kicked wildly. And then the wound on my back made itself known again. The pain snapped me out of my shock and I finally took action against my assailant. I kicked backwards with all my might. I missed my target—one guess where that was—and instead hit the person's shin with the heel of my boot. Yes, I missed my first target by a long shot, but I was panicking!

My attacker yelped and promptly released me. Feet finally on the ground, I jumped forward and spun around, taking a defensive stance I pulled straight out of martial arts movies. You know the kind? Looks really good on TV but, in reality, leaves you wide open and really serves no purpose? Yeah, one of those. Serafina had taught me better, but I didn't care.

I blinked. I blinked again. The man standing before me, doubled over and grabbing his injured leg, I knew. If the orange hair wasn't a dead giveaway, the eyes were. I opened my mouth a few times trying to comprehend the chances of this encounter.

"Did you have to kick me?" Jerry asked with a whimper.

Yes, Jerry. The little cadet I knew as a SOLDIER. We went way back. From the time he pointed a gun at Ronnie and me instead of the rabid emu chasing us, the time I threatened him as a Turk, the time I threatened him as a SOLDIER, the time he became my stalker, and then fan boy, and then friend. Ours was a strange relationship, he and I.

Last time we had talked to one another was when I'd almost been eaten by a dragon, he saved my life, and then I ordered him to leave me alone and run away. Thinking back, I suppose I could have been a little nicer to the guy. He _was_ completely devoted to me like good friends generally are…and fan boys…and stalkers… No, I will not let that go.

Like Cloud and the others, Jerry had changed in the five years I'd been absent from the world. He'd grown a few inches so that he now stood half a head taller than me. Though, considering I was roughly five-foot-four, that wasn't saying much. I would give a definite measurement of his height, but I've never been much good at measuring anything.

Also, like Cloud, he'd gained a bit of muscle—filled out in the arms and chest. His biceps might not have been as big as Cloud's (didn't have to swing the massive Buster Sword around) but considering he used to be a bit on the small side, it was an improvement. I always marveled how puberty treated men. They'd go from skinny little boys to _boom! _Strong arms, strong legs, strong chest. Women...we got breasts. Some of us, anyway. Envy, I think, is the word I'm looking for. I mean, why couldn't I become naturally stronger?

Jerry still wore his hair the same. It was medium-length with very loose curls and as orange as I remembered. Not Carrot Top orange, mind you, but... Orange-orange, perhaps? Throw in a bit of burnt orange? Oh, leave me alone, the last time I looked at my crayons was when I was ten.

After recognizing Jerry for who he was and processing that the person who had "attacked" me was not some strange, random pervert, I was able to breathe a little more easily. Dropping my arms to the side, I stared at the man.

"You glomped me from behind!" I shouted at him. "What did you expect was going to happen?"

He gave me an injured look, "I thought you were dead!"

"Well," I scoffed, "that makes two of us."

Jerry paused for a moment, his eyebrows knitting together, before he finally asked, "_What?_"

Ronnie stepped forward a bit, "She's been in a…" He trailed off and gestured with his hands the shape of a box, "…tube thing."

Ronnie's explanation of my whereabouts only produced from Jerry a blank stare. Since Jerry couldn't make heads or tails of what Ronnie had told him, he turned his attention back towards me and simply disregarded the fact that Ronnie had said anything in the first place. I did that a lot, too.

"Where have you _been_ all this time?" Jerry asked. I tried, and failed, to overlook the forlorn expression he was giving me. Before I could answer, Jerry went on, "I looked everywhere for you. I tried calling you. I even risked asking other Shin-Ra employees about Anubis while trying to find you!"

I shrugged helplessly with my hands, "Unh?"

When Cloud failed to recognize me back in the Shin-Ra Building, I had become upset. When Tifa pretended not to know me, I had become angry. Aerith I excused because she had only ever known me as Saan, and then it was only for a short hour or so. Ronnie…was Ronnie. He had known all along where I was and so I doubted he had worried much at all. But now that I was confronted with somebody who still remembered me and had obviously missed me enough to try and find me, I didn't know what to do.

I had never encountered that type of scenario before. And it was apparent that Jerry had suffered emotionally from thinking I had died all those years ago. I mean, that's natural, right? Duh. I was at a loss as to how I was supposed to make things better. What could I say to something like that?

"I was dead at the time," I replied lamely. Realizing that wasn't the best choice of words, I hastened to correct myself, "Okay, I wasn't _dead_, more like I was just _indisposed_. I've been in a coma-like state at the Shin-Ra building—" I motioned at Ronnie, "—in a tube ever since the Nibelheim Incident. I just woke up last night and only arrived at Kalm a few hours ago. Do you honestly think that I would have voluntarily not contacted you if I had been all right?"

"You voluntarily jumped into the Mako Reactor," Ronnie mumbled from behind me.

"Shut up, Conscience, nobody asked you," I snarled, looking at him from over my shoulder. I'm trying to pretend I'm the perfect angel, you're kinda ruining it.

Jerry looked frantically between the two of us before his eyes rested on me, "Why did you jump into a Mako Reactor? What kind of tube? You two aren't making any sense."

Oh, boy, here we go again. I could only say the same shit over and over again so many times before I lost my mind, gave up, and just admitted I was crazy. Which, the more I thought about it, I probably was. What else would cause me to leap into a vat of poison after a man who had recently caught an entire village on fire and shared genetics with a space freak hell-bent on killing everyone _while_ leaving two of my friends to bleed to death on the floor? What else would cause me to lie to one of my best friends' friends about the fact he was nuts? And here I was about to lie to another one of my friends. God, I was horrible!

"I was after Sephiroth?" I squeaked in reply. "He had fallen into the Reactor and I went after him. It was a stupid idea, I admit, but I thought I could help. Instead, I wound up getting Mako poisoning. Shin-Ra found me and put me in a little Mako tank to slowly wean me off the stuff."

"You're lying again," Ronnie said, seemingly disgruntled by my behavior.

I rolled my eyes while silently vowing to kill him later. He was rapidly showing his discontent to my decisions about taking the easy way out of everything. Well, I was rapidly growing weary of reliving my failures. I was mentally exhausted and taking the path of least resistance was beyond tempting to me. But where was my SOLDIER honor in doing something like that? Damn dog-loving, dark-headed men.

Jerry quickly became offended. He looked to Ronnie, "What do you mean she's lying?"

Ah, hell.

"I don't know about the Mako poisoning," Ronnie explained, refusing to notice my intense stare, "but Shin-Ra didn't keep her because they wanted to help her. They just wanted to try to do experiments on her, and when that didn't work, they locked her up in more Mako. They probably did it to keep her from retaliating against them like the rest of the First's had done."

"They did _what_?" Jerry asked, infuriated. He snapped his attention back to me, "Why would you lie about something like that?"

"Because I don't want you going off and trying to exact revenge, or something equally stupid like that!" I shouted. I flung my hand in the direction of the Inn, "I already got one dumbass trying to do it, and I don't need another one!"

Jerry's eyes narrowed severely, his jaw set. _Fuck,_ I thought. I wasn't going to escape from this one. I could dodge Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith all day but Jerry was another story entirely. The young man stormed over to me.

"Come here," he ordered sternly, snatching my left forearm as he walked past me.

A little freaked out by his sudden forcefulness, I obliged. I had to walk briskly to keep up with him. Yes, he was definitely not happy with me. Jerry led me around the metallic pump and headed deeper into the town of Kalm. Looking back over my shoulder, my eyes landed on my staff. Mentally trying to call it to me didn't work but, luckily, Ronnie grabbed it before he jogged to catch up with us. Satisfied that my weapon was not going to get left behind, I turned back around to stare at the back of Jerry's head.

"And where are we going?" I asked haughtily.

"My place," Jerry snapped back.

I hesitated for a moment before asking, "Why?"

"So he can yell at you in private," Ronnie said as he came up beside me. "We were starting to draw a crowd back there."

I hadn't noticed. Then again, when I got agitated, I didn't particularly care if anybody was around. If people were so interested to know about what was going on in my daily life then let them know. It was probably better than daytime television.

Jerry led us quite a ways into Kalm. We passed a few houses, all of which closely resembled one another and were packed so close together that there was no such thing as a yard. Then we went under an archway into a tunnel that led us to an even bigger area of Kalm. From coming to the town before with Rod, I knew this to be the main residential area.

While Jerry towed me along behind him, I began to wonder why he had decided to move to Kalm. He used to live in Sector 8 of Midgar, if my memory served me correctly. And who's to say it did?

Back in Nibelheim I had warned him about Shin-Ra trying to do something to him because of what he'd seen. I had instructed him to stay away from Shin-Ra. Obviously he had. He said he "risked asking other Shin-Ra employees about Anubis." So he must have deserted only to later go back and play interrogator. Of course, moving out of Midgar would have been a smart idea—get out from underneath the noses of the people who might be searching for you. But why would he move to _Kalm?_ I mean, sure, it was close to Midgar and so one wouldn't have to run far, but wasn't the point of running away to get as far away from one's pursuer as possible?

Before I could go further with my train of thought, Jerry steered me away from the main road and walked towards a white house. Above the first floor, the building was decorated with multiple, wooden strip accents arranged in squares, triangles, and any kind of geometric pattern the builders could think of that would take up space and look pretty while doing it. Like all the houses in Kalm, the shingles were blue and the roof was set at a very steep angle. I never really understood the appeal of houses with such high roofs. I had always thought that they looked deformed.

In the front of the house were six windows, three on the first floor and three on the second. The windows were plain, just like the rest of the house. Because they were set so close together, there was no room for shutters. However, on the inside, I could see cream-colored, Victorian-style drapes. The door was set to the right side of the house. What little OCD I had raged about the placing of said door—it threw off the windows!—as Jerry dragged me towards it.

The door was unlocked I discovered as Jerry forcefully opened it. He didn't throw me inside like I had expected, instead he allowed me to quickly walk in by myself.

The inside of the house looked nice. Directly in front of me were the stairs that led to the next floor. Both the living room and kitchen, which were separated only by a small, island cabinet, had dark, wood flooring. The kitchen appliances looked outdated compared to Earth's standards, however, and the piping that ran along the walls that delivered the Mako-generated power was unseemly. There was one couch and one loveseat, both the same color as the drapes, arranged in an L-shape, the couch facing an old TV that was propped against the front wall. The end table between the couch and loveseat, as well as the coffee table, was the same color as the flooring. There was a bookshelf against the wall to my left, a living room chair sitting beside it that had a dark green pattern one should only ever find in doctor's offices and grandparents' homes.

I took a few tentative steps forward. Before I could admire the random, scenic pictures hanging on the walls I heard the door slam shut behind me. I flinched a little. Turning to face Jerry I saw him standing at the door, staring intently at me with his hand still on the doorknob. Ronnie had sidled himself to the other side of the door. He was holding my staff with both hands and, from the look on his face, he had probably just narrowly avoided losing an appendage. And so it begins.

"Explain. _Now_," Jerry ordered.

"Explain what?" I asked crossly, though I had a very good idea as to what he was referring to.

"What happened after I left you and you went into the Reactor, why you jumped into it, why Shin-Ra kept you for all those years for 'experiments,' and if you had a hand in the President's murder, I want to know it all. I want to know it now. And don't even think of lying again, Ronnie will tell me if you do."

Ronnie's eyebrows knitted together for a second as he frowned, but he didn't argue against Jerry. Yeah, Ronnie would clear everything up, wouldn't he?

"Using my own best friend against me, eh?" I asked unhappily.

"I thought I was one, too," Jerry retorted.

I flinched. Oof, talk about below the belt. The gloves had come off for that one. Standing there, staring at Jerry, I weighed my options.

Unlike Cloud, he wasn't suffering from some unknown mental illness that forced me to dodge around certain issues just to make sure I didn't unknowingly or unintentionally shatter his persona. Unlike Tifa, Jerry knew everything that I knew regarding the mission in Nibelheim—including Cloud's involvement—up to the part where I went to the Reactor. I had summed up the beginning portion of my part in the Nibelheim Incident to Ronnie and half-bullshited the rest to AVALANCHE. However, with Jerry I could reveal all without any consequences.

As soon as that thought crossed my mind, I realized it was false. There could be consequences. To tell Jerry everything would mean putting him at risk. He had avoided Shin-Ra for five years; they might not even care he had deserted anymore. Yet, if Shin-Ra was trailing after AVALANCHE, they'd be led straight to him. If word got out that some strangers had been seen with him arguing about something, the Company would follow the lead.

To tell him everything would give him information about Sephiroth's fate, the General's and Jenova's involvement in my actions at the Reactor, procedures Shin-Ra might not want leaked, the truth about who really killed the President, and the goals of AVALANCHE. Not only was that valuable information Shin-Ra would want to know, they would want to terminate anyone who knew it before their secrets spread further.

I could tell Jerry to run, hide away, but I doubted he would do it again. Especially if he knew my past perils and what I faced by traveling with AVALANCHE after Jenova, whom they thought to be Sephiroth. No, he'd demand to fight with me. I couldn't let him do that. I didn't want someone else's coffin resting on my conscience.

Yet, I couldn't lie. Jerry would just ask Ronnie, and Ronnie would tell him because he thought it wasn't right for me to lie about such things to my friends. Ronnie was right, of course. Either way, Jerry was going to find out. Wasn't it better if I just told him the truth? Even if I thought he wouldn't listen to my words of caution afterwards, it was worth a shot. I felt as if I didn't have a choice.

"Fine," I said at length. "Let's start at the beginning. What do you remember of Anubis?"

"It was your codename in SOLDIER," Jerry answered. He moved away from the door and went to the chair beside the bookshelf. Sitting in it, he continued, "You told me the President had ordered you to keep your identity hidden. As Anubis, you always wore a black suit and used that staff weapon. When you weren't wearing the suit, I was to call you 'Saan.' Which you cleared up for me by choking me, I might add."

I cringed a little. I had forgotten that part.

"Why are you asking me this?" he asked with a wave of his hand.

"Because the Anubis suit is important to what I have to say," I replied as Ronnie took a seat on the couch. "You weren't a First, and you hadn't been in SOLDIER long, but there was something big happening at the top. Genesis, whom I'm sure you remember—" Jerry nodded, "—deserted Shin-Ra. He did this because he found out about experiments that had been done on himself as well as Angeal and Sephiroth. These experiments had something to do with what Shin-Ra thought was an Ancient. The entity was called JENOVA.

"JENOVA cells were used on Sephiroth, Angeal, and Genesis when they were fetuses to give them the power of the Ancients for military purposes."

"You're not joking, are you?" Jerry asked, disgusted. Ronnie was just as shell-shocked as he was, staring at me with a slack jaw.

"Unfortunately, no. And, unfortunately, the being who they thought was an Ancient was really an alien life form known as the 'calamity that fell from the sky.' JENOVA…was a monster."

"Shin-Ra used space aliens to make soldiers?" Ronnie questioned.

"Wait, wait, wait," Jerry said, gesturing for me to stop. "Wasn't Jenova the name of Sephiroth's mother? Didn't he say that when we first arrived at Nibelheim?"

I sighed, "That's something I think Hojo told him. In the scientist's mind, Jenova probably could be considered his mother, but that was the worst lie the damn man could have ever conceived. However, you're getting ahead of me.

"JENOVA cells are every bit as strange as one would think an alien's to be. They can copy genes, DNA, whatever, and try to imitate it. Because of an accident during training, Genesis' cells had started to leak genetic information. Somehow, that made him start to degrade. To stop this degradation, Genesis deserted and went with a scientist by the name of Hollander.

"Hollander had access to some sort of cloning machine, I think, and that, along with the JENOVA cells, was how Genesis was able to create all those clones we all loved so much." I paused briefly to finally sit down on the loveseat. My feet were starting to get tired. Crossing my legs, I went on, "Angeal could be copied as well, in the form of monsters. But, that's not really important to what I'm trying to say. Lazard was funding Hollander's research."

"Lazard?" Jerry almost whispered, surprised. "Why would he…?"

I shrugged, "I don't know. To get back at Shin-Ra? Who knows? I never found out. I still don't know what happened to him, either. What I do know is that when Genesis attacked the Shin-Ra Building, his main target was Hojo. Hojo mentioned JENOVA then. Before that, I, and everyone else really, had thought JENOVA to be an Ancient. When I first put on my suit back when I was a Turk, Hojo had explained to me it belonged to the Ancients and that it had ties to JENOVA. So, when I heard that JENOVA was really a calamity from the skies, I connected the dots to her being an alien life form. And I was wearing a piece of equipment that could contain her cells in it."

"Does the suit contain her cells?" Jerry asked.

I un-crossed my legs and leaned forward. Placing my elbows on my knees, I steepled my fingers against my lips and continued, "Yes. But I didn't find that out until about a year later…on the day we left for Nibelheim. I was training in the VR room against Sephiroth. I hadn't meant to fight him, mind you. Before, I had been fighting normal Wutai troops. Sephiroth's data did a number on me and gave me the scar under my left eye. When I managed to deactivate the program, I saw Hojo at the controls. I knew then he was the one who had loaded the Sephiroth data.

"I was _livid_. I stormed out of the main area of the Training Room and went to confront him, but he was mumbling to himself. He mentioned the cells within my armband. I had seen what JENOVA's cells had done to Genesis and Angeal. I didn't like the fact that they could be transferring to me. In my rage, I attacked him. I questioned him about what he had said—about the cells. He mentioned, instead, Sephiroth. It was a shame that I wasn't going with him. When I demanded Hojo to tell me where Sephiroth was going, he told me, after some persuasion, that the General had been assigned to go to a Reactor in Nibelheim.

"There had to be a reason for Hojo thinking it would be good if I went with Sephiroth there. I questioned him further and he told me about reports about the Ancients being there. I didn't know about any Ancients. I did know, however, that Hojo had mentioned JENOVA's cells; Sephiroth had JENOVA's cells inside him; and, there were reports of that in Nibelheim. I didn't want him stumbling upon something he shouldn't and possibly going down the same path Genesis had taken.

"I left Hojo and rushed to find Sephiroth. Cloud ran into me, literally, shortly after I left the Training Room. He was having trouble rallying people for the mission. He directed me towards Zack and I told Cloud to grab anyone he could. That's how you were brought in, Jerry."

Jerry nodded slowly, "I remember. He was very adamant that I had to go because he didn't want to get into trouble with General Sephiroth if he couldn't find anyone. I didn't have anything better to do—no missions assigned—so I decided to tag along."

"Sephiroth was in Lazard's office. I demanded that he take me with him. I even threatened to constantly call him if he didn't take me with him. It's not like he could have simply turned off his phone since he was Shin-Ra's 'go-to' guy and everything. Sephiroth wasn't happy with me, he probably thought I was being insubordinate, but he allowed me to come anyway. I never told him the real reason I wanted to go.

"You know what happened next. What I want to address is the time when we were in the truck, just before the dragon attacked us."

"You acted funny," Jerry said. "You grabbed at your head. You looked like you were in pain. In fact, if I remember right, you said there was a strange buzzing in your ears."

I nodded, "That was because we were getting close to JENOVA. I didn't know it at the time, that she was there in Nibelheim, but after Zack and Sephiroth's encounter with Genesis, I figured it out."

"Genesis was there?" Jerry asked. "What was he… Oh. Let me guess. The cells?"

I smirked, "You catch on quickly. Though you and Cloud had been told about the monster outbreak and malfunctioning equipment, you hadn't been debriefed about Shin-Ra's suspicions about Genesis being there. Yes, he was after JENOVA's cells. Though, he asked Sephiroth for them. I think there was something different in Sephiroth's version of JENOVA's genes. He couldn't clone himself or copy others. I don't know, I don't remember."

"With Sephiroth thinking JENOVA was his mother, and Genesis asking about his cells, I'm guessing that's what made Sephiroth go to the Mansion and begin all that reading. He was researching. And you took me with you to make sure he didn't 'find something he shouldn't' and snap," Jerry muttered, finally beginning to understand the whole picture. "But, he did snap."

I frowned, "Yes, a week later, he finally broke. I woke up in the middle of the night and went down into the basement after him. He wasn't the same Sephiroth I knew. He terrified me. He called me a traitor; went on about Ancients being a superior race but they were wiped out because they had to protect the planet from some calamity. The reports had fed him lies about JENOVA being an Ancient. So he thought it was his duty to take back the planet from the rest of us…those who deserted the Ancients and let them die as they tried to save the world. He never discovered that JENOVA _was_ the Calamity responsible for the Ancients' demise."

"That's…" Ronnie hesitated, "horribly depressing. I mean, the guy genuinely thought he had to avenge his mother for what happened to her and what Shin-Ra had done to her."

"Yeah," I agreed, "it is horribly depressing. It's unfair. But that doesn't justify what he did to Nibelheim and the people within it."

"True," Ronnie nodded.

"So Sephiroth takes out a whole village in retaliation for his extinct race and then heads to the Reactor, where JENOVA is stored. Tifa went in search of her father, Zack was sent after her by that old man in the cape, Cloud chased after Sephiroth because of what he'd done, and then we went after all of them," Jerry mumbled, his eyes far away as he remembered that night years ago.

"Yeah," I replied, "we went after them..."

"I don't mean to sound rude or disrespectful or anything, but, are you insane?" Ronnie asked, staring at me. "This man just disposed of _an entire town_. And you went after him?"

Jerry snorted derisively, "I remember thinking she was nuts. But I don't think there was anything else we could have done. It was our obligation to try and stop him, not just morally. It was Shin-Ra policy; AWOL SOLDIERs were dealt with immediately. It probably still is policy."

"Turk policy, too."

"Depressing politics aside," I groaned, "Jerry and I went to the Reactor. We were attacked by a dragon."

"Holy shit!" Ronnie breathed. "Like, dragon dragon? Like, the fire-breathing kind?"

I stared at him blankly before answering, "Yes, Ronnie, a dragon. The fire-breathing kind. With rows of sharp, pointed teeth and the jaw strength of a fucking Tasmanian Devil."

"What's a Tasmanian Devil?" Jerry asked innocently, glancing from me to Ronnie and back again.

I sighed, "Tiny creature that kinda looks like a messed-up, giant rat and has a disgusting growl. Never mind, it's not important. And why are you so surprised about the dragon? Didn't I mention Sephiroth fighting one?"

"Well, yeah," Ronnie replied. "But that's _Sephiroth_. He can kill anything."

"And you're saying I can't?" I asked, vaguely aware my voice was rising over the fact that my Pride had just been bitchslapped.

Over in his little chair, Jerry sighed and rubbed his eyebrows with his thumb and forefinger. My attention snapped to him.

"What?" I asked.

He shook his head and raised his hands dismissively. Though he tried to hide it, I noticed the small smile twitching his lips. I frowned at him, almost pouted in my anger, but I would not suffer _that_ humility as well.

He looked over at Ronnie, "She _did_ manage to kill the dragon."

"Ha!" I shouted, pointing at Ronnie in triumph.

"With my help," Jerry finished with a smirk.

"Ugh!" I exclaimed.

"Ha ha!" Ronnie shouted back, sticking his tongue out at me.

I made an equally obscene gesture at him before turning my wrath on Jerry, "You little shit, whose side are you on?"

Jerry didn't answer. Instead, he sat back in his chair, crossed his ankles, and continued to smirk at me while Ronnie tried so hard not to piss himself from laughing. Oh, this means war. I fumed the entire time it took for Ronnie to stop laughing. About a minute or so passed before Ronnie finally stopped and wiped the tears away from his eyes. He was still grinning, though.

"I'm still amazed you didn't get eaten."

"I did," I deadpanned.

The grin vanished, instantly to be replaced by a deep frown. Jerry actually cringed, his eyes dropping to the floor. The look of misery I'd seen in them before his gaze had fallen actually surprised me. Did I put my foot in my mouth again? Dammit, now I felt like shit. What else is new?

"How?" Ronnie asked. He looked uneasily from Jerry to myself. "I mean, you're here, so he couldn't have eaten you in one bite." He laughed uneasily.

I frowned, "He chomped onto my damn leg, that's how. I thought I was faster than it. I was wrong."

Ronnie cringed that time. "Ow," he muttered, "I bet that hurt. I _know_ that hurt. At least he didn't bite it off, right? It could have been worse."

Yeah, he could have bit into my skull, but I kept my remark to myself. Jerry was still clearly upset and the last thing I wanted to do was put that image into his head. I knew I had brought up painful memories, figuratively and literally. It wasn't pleasant to have a mouthful of teeth stabbing into my calf, shin, and bone. I couldn't remember what it felt like, pain's funny like that, but I could remember how my body had reacted. How I had to really focus on escaping the dragon's powerful jaws to fight the overwhelming urge to pass out. How I had landed on my leg after it released me and my whole body had tensed up in shock. The whole experience hadn't been a very pleasant one.

"It shouldn't have happened," Jerry mumbled from his chair, his chin resting in his palm. He was very intent on staring at anything but me.

"Oh, here we go," I replied quietly. His very own little guilt trip.

Jerry's eyes snapped to me, narrowing in agitation, "If you hadn't have told me to run, I would have been able to help you."

"If you hadn't've run," I countered, "_you_ would have been bitten in two."

"You always underestimated me," he continued quietly.

"You never proved yourself worthy to me."

"You were mean and spiteful, always controlling, never giving me a chance to prove _anything_."

"You were a little kid following after someone who was stronger than you, desperately wanting to be accepted to the point you barged into my life without my consent and just _assumed_ I gave two shits about you."

"You did give a damn about me, or you wouldn't have risked your life to save mine."

"I did it out of obligation. I felt I had to; that it was the polite thing to do."

"Just like I felt it was my 'obligation' to run back to you after I heard that gut-wrenching scream, tossing out all rhyme and reason, and attack that damn monster. It was 'obligation' that made me hold you as you clung to me and cried your eyes out over the pain."

"Guys!" Ronnie shouted, drawing both Jerry's attention and mine to him as he waved his arms around over his head. "Okay. We get it. We love each other—"

"What?" I interrupted. I was ignored.

"Can we get back to what happened with the dragon? I'm assuming Saan was fighting, it bit her, you stepped in, and it died? Somehow?"

Jerry leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms as well as his legs. He was staring at me again. "That's it in a nutshell."

"Right," Ronnie nodded. "And then what?"

"She ordered me away," Jerry replied while raising a brow. Blatantly daring me to say something. I could not resist.

"I _warned_ you away," I grumbled.

"Uh-uh," Jerry replied, holding up a finger. "Only people who _care_ warn others. Those who are _obligated_ order."

Grr. What was this? Pick on Saan day? What had I done to warrant this behavior? Other than, you know, lie to everybody I'd ever known. Oh, shut up!

Ronnie turned to face me, putting his hands together, "And how did that make you feel?"

My jaw dropped, "Oh, don't you start!" Ronnie began laughing as I continued. "You changed your major from a psychiatrist at least three times, so don't _even_ go there. Yeah, okay, I warned-"

"Ordered," Jerry interceded.

"Shut-the-fuck-up," I growled, glaring at him.

"See?" He asked, amusement in his voice. "She's ordering even now."

"I WARNED-" I shouted, begging either one of them to say otherwise. They cleverly kept their mouth shut (sans Ronnie's giggles) and I went on, "-him to leave because I didn't want the Turks to get a hold of him and, I don't know, torture information out of him or something?"

Ronnie looked over his shoulder at Jerry, "They would have done it, too. You don't wanna know what I've seen or done."

"What have you seen and done?" I asked suspiciously.

"I'm not telling you," Ronnie replied. "Partially because you'd kill me and partially because the Turks would, too."

"...You ran away with AVALANCHE and an ex-SOLDIER. They're going to kill you anyway," I said.

The look on Ronnie's face was priceless. "Oh, God, I didn't think of that."

I resisted the urge to face-palm once again. I spent a lot of my time doing that, now that I look back. Ah, well. That was life with Ronnie.

"So." Jerry said. "Getting back on track, what happened after you—" _Glare._ "—_warned_ me away?"

"I went to the Reactor. I found Tifa's father lying dead in a pool of his own blood."

Both Jerry and Ronnie flinched.

"I was afraid of that," Jerry replied quietly. Respectfully.

"Yeah, well it got worse. I found Zack and Cloud in a similar situation. Both were lying lifeless on the metal stairs leading to the cell that held Jenova. Zack was beat up and unconscious, but he was way better off than Cloud. Cloud had been run through by the Masamune, went straight through his chest... I honestly don't know how he survived that. And Tifa had been slashed pretty badly, as well; she was lying off to the side of the stairs which is why I didn't see her.

"Because I had fought the dragon as well as miscellaneous monsters, I didn't have enough magic to heal them. I hated myself for it. I didn't see Sephiroth anywhere, but the portion of the Reactor that held Jenova was wide open. I knew he had to have been in there and I rushed inside. In my rage, I activated my suit, and when I did that, that horrible ringing in my head hit me like a freakin' brick wall.

"It threw me off-balance, I tripped and fell, banging my chin against the floor."

"Ow," Ronnie cringed.

"That was the least of my worries," I went on. "I heard a voice in my head and saw random images flashing before my eyes. I don't remember what the words said at first or what the images were of, and it all happened so quickly."

"Was it Jenova giving you those images?" Ronnie asked. It was apparent by his frown that the thought worried him.

"Yes," I replied matter-of-factly. "She told me to jump. That Sephiroth had. Why shouldn't I?"

"Oh, God," Jerry almost whispered. "You didn't…"

"I did."

"Why would you do something like that? Did you forget that an alien creature was talking to you? Did it control you?"

"Nope," I sighed. "I jumped. Honestly, at the time, I was so pissed off at Jenova that I was happy to oblige her. And Jenova _is_ a her, if those breasts are anything to go by."

"Yeah," Ronnie drawled. "I think it might be a little awkward to have your 'mother' be a man."

I snorted. I couldn't help myself.

"Anyways," I continued. "JENOVA, though humanoid, is anything but human. She was blue, for one thing. Her whole body was blue. And she had these wing-like appendages sticking out of her back. They weren't feathered, like Genesis' or Angeal's wings had been, but I then understood why those two had had them. I think some of her organs were floating around in the tank she was in."

"Ew!" Ronnie shouted, flailing his arms. "Cannot un-see! Augh! And she was still alive?"

"Yes. But that's not the worst of it. She was missing her head." I smiled at the faces Ronnie and Jerry were making. "That's right. She was headless and yet, somehow, she was able to communicate with me, painful though those communications were. I don't remember how, but I figured out that Sephiroth had taken Jenova's head himself. I'm not one-hundred percent sure if Cloud forced Sephiroth into the Reactor below, or if Sephiroth jumped. I wasn't there and Cloud doesn't remember. But either way, Sephiroth fell into the Reactor and I, in my deranged state of mind, went in after him to try and get Jenova away from him."

Jerry was frowning again, "I still don't understand why you did that."

"Looking back," I replied, "I don't either. And I don't know how I managed to stay in a most likely Mako-induced coma for five years. But, I did."

Ronnie nodded, "And from what I know, and what I've already told Saan, after she fell into the Reactor, the Company 'repossessed' Zack and Cloud. They most likely did experiments on them involving JENOVA cells. Hell if I know. Years passed and Zack managed to break free. He was shot and killed shortly afterwards, though. Cloud disappeared.

"And then the attacks of AVALANCHE came. It's kinda ironic, when you think about it, but those attacks were led by Cloud, Tifa, and their friends."

"How is that ironic?" Jerry asked. "Shin-Ra destroyed everything he ever knew, killed his mother, and his best friend. That's enough to make anyone want to take them out."

"That's the problem," I hesitated. Was it alright if Jerry knew? He had to, didn't he? If I wanted to cover all my bases, Jerry _did_ have to know about Cloud's condition. "Cloud doesn't remember the events of the Nibelheim Incident very well. Probably has to do with whatever Shin-Ra did to him in those years he was missing. And he definitely does not remember Zack's death. Ronnie thinks he suppressed those memories. It's possible. Either way, that's his situation in a nutshell."

"So," Jerry began, "Cloud doesn't remember _too_ much of what happened to him and yet he still managed to find himself with AVALANCHE, destroying the very company that tried to destroy him?"

"Yes," Ronnie and I chorused.

"Damn," Jerry replied, slightly impressed.

"Yeah, well," Ronnie went on, "AVALANCHE was eventually captured and held within the Shin-Ra building near the science labs. They'd come to bust out a friend of theirs, a very special woman, and failed miserably. And with my genius-"

"Har har," I mocked loudly.

Ronnie made a face at me, "Hey. I got AVALANCHE to bust you outta your metaphorical prison."

Jerry's eyebrows raised in interest as he glanced at Ronnie, "Really? AVALANCHE actually listened to something a _Turk_ had to say?"

"See? He doubts your genius, too," I smirked.

"Only because he's whipped," Ronnie mumbled grumpily.

Jerry narrowed his eyes at him, "You're one to talk."

I grinned maniacally. Yes, I loved having complete control over people. I loved when people acknowledged the fact that I could control them simply by a few dirty looks and snappy remarks. Then again, I wasn't completely disillusioned into believing Ronnie or Jerry were _actually_ under my control. They simply _allowed_ themselves to be controlled; they played along. And I loved them for it.

Managing to wipe the grin off my face, I cleared my throat politely and said, "You were saying?"

"...I don't remember," Ronnie replied as he looked away from Jerry.

I rolled my eyes, "You convinced AVALANCHE to bust me out of my metaphorical prison _and..._"

"Right. Cloud and the others followed me to where Saan was being held but before they could help me release her, she bust out of her tube like the Hu-. Um. Like a bat outta hell?"

Nice save there, Ronnie. A Tasmanian Devil was a lot easier to explain than something like, say, THE HULK! Sighing, I finally leaned back into the loveseat I was sitting on, placing my staff so that it lay across my lap. I made certain not to cut into the upholstery with the bladed tips.

"You skipped a bit there, bud," I said.

"I did?"

"Yeah. The fact that Jenova was running around the complex killing people."

Ronnie paled, "Oh, yeah. That. You know, I was happy not remembering that part."

Jerry frowned in confusion as he looked at me, "But you said Sephiroth had decapitated her in Nibelheim. How was she able to do anything? How did she get to the Shin-Ra Building?"

"Most likely, Hojo moved her. Kept her almost directly across from me in the labs. I was a little more hidden, but still. I don't know how her body was able to walk around without it's damn head, but it did. And behaved as if it knew exactly where it was going. Jenova was the one that killed the President, not us. Though I definitely had plans to do the same. She just beat me to it," I replied.

Jerry's chin found its way back into his palm as he looked outside the curtained window, "So Jenova kills the President, you and AVALANCHE are framed for the murder, and you flee Midgar. You come here, to Kalm, to take a break before moving on. Where are you going?"

Aye, there's the rub. I had plans to go back to Nibelheim, but where Cloud was headed next, I had no clue. The gang might be discussing that right now over in the Inn as we continued rambling on, but I didn't care. Ronnie and I would find out the next day, no doubt, just before leaving Kalm.

Not knowing where we were headed next wasn't the problem. The problem was in telling Jerry our future plans. Ronnie and I may have filled him in on everything else so far, leaving out little pieces here and there, and I had mixed feelings about having done that, but I definitely didn't want him knowing where we were going. I knew without a doubt he'd either ask to come with us or follow us anyway. Our group was big enough as it was. We didn't need another person to make us a bigger target.

No, that was another excuse. I didn't want to put him in danger. Hadn't I already admitted to that? Why did I always try to cover that up?

"I don't know," I replied quickly. "Cloud hasn't said anything about that."

Jerry was suspicious. I could see it in his eyes.

"Should I go ask him, then?" He asked.

"No!" I shouted. I was surprised when Ronnie said it too.

"With Cloud's state of mind, we might not want to do that," Ronnie cautioned.

Jerry's eyebrows knitted together in a scowl, his gaze not leaving mine, "And why should I care about his state of mind?"

Ronnie actually looked surprised and slightly offended by Jerry's comment. I didn't understand why. Cloud was more my friend than his. Though, Cloud and I weren't really friends, either. I think our relationship only went as far as "acquaintances" until the Nibelheim Incident when it went back down to "Who the fuck are you, again?"

"Wow, Jerry," I mused, smiling slightly. "And where's _your_ SOLDIER honor?"

He looked at a spot behind me, where I remembered seeing a clock, before snorting. Pushing himself up with his right hand, he removed himself from his chair.

"I'm not a SOLDIER anymore," he replied. Simple as that. "And neither are you."

"Oh, I don't know," I said, cocking my head to the side. "I'd like to think that I am. Lazard, Genesis, Angeal...Sephiroth. Each one of my superiors abandoned the Company and turned against it. So, in a sense, aren't I just following orders?"

"Ha!" Jerry barked out a laugh as he walked towards the front door.

"Where you goin'?" I asked.

"Back to work," he replied easily. "I was coming back from my break when I saw you."

"Really? Where do you work?" Ronnie asked.

"Weapon's shop," Jerry replied. "Figured, after working for Shin-Ra, I'd be good at it."

Ronnie got up so quickly off the couch he almost tripped over the coffee table. Catching himself, he skittered around it and jogged to Jerry.

"I'll come with you!" He said, grinning from ear to ear.

Jerry paused, his door half open, hand still on the knob, as he stared curiously at Ronnie.

"You kinda can't, dude. It's _my_ job..."

Ronnie shrugged, "I'm the only one outta the group besides our talking cat-dog-thing that doesn't have a weapon."

"You have a gun," I grumbled.

"Yeah, but that's Turk weaponry. I'm supposed to be traveling _in cognito_ and everything so they don't spot us so easily. Speaking of which, I should probably change my clothes."

Because the Turks can't see a line of dumb nuts traveling across the vast plains from their spiffy, black helicopters of death. Only if Ronnie was wearing his Turk outfit or gun would they be able to see us. Like a morbid game of _Where's Waldo_... Logic fail.

Speaking of which, why hadn't they found us yet?

"Cat-dog-thing?" Jerry asked, slightly curious. But only slightly.

"Science experiment," I replied quickly. "He doesn't much like Hojo and decided to come with us in our escape."

"Uh-huh. Well, I guess it's fine if you need to buy something. I'd offer you a job," Jerry addressed Ronnie, "but the boss isn't hiring. I can show you the clothing store, as well."

"Sweet!" Ronnie bounced.

Jerry turned his attention once again to me and pointed, "And you, stay here and take a shower."

My jaw dropped, "That is the strangest command I've ever been given!"

"I'm guessing you've forgotten, since that's a reoccurring thing with you, but you have a wound between your shoulder blades that really should be cleaned and either bandaged or healed."

Oh yeah. The comfy padding of his loveseat had made me forget all about that. Ronnie winked at me as he followed Jerry out the door. I frowned in confusion. Did he have some plan I didn't know about? Before the door shut, Jerry caught it and stuck his head back inside to stare at me.

"And you're cleaning my couch."

Finally the duo left, leaving me to myself while I transferred my blood all over Jerry's once pristine, cream-colored furniture. Ah, well. The wound wasn't as bad as it looked, since Aerith had healed me, but it still bothered me if I moved a certain way or put too much pressure on my back.

I was quite content to remain seated, my staff still lying across my lap, but who knew how long Ronnie and Jerry would be gone? There were only so many things to stare at in Jerry's house. Furniture. Some paintings. Kitchen appliances. The same shit I saw when I first entered the house.

Sighing, I jumped up from the loveseat and walked up the stairs. A hallway stretched from the top of the stairs all the way to the other side of the house on my left. Attached to it were a few rooms. Probably bedrooms. The bathroom was easily identifiable since Jerry had left the door to it wide open.

I was just going to walk in when I realized I was about to step into a bachelor's bathroom. I wasn't completely sure I wanted to do that. Least of all when that bachelor was Jerry.

"Oh, come on," I muttered to myself as I stood just beside the door frame. "You've stumbled upon Ronnie's porn stash and underwear before. There's no way in Hell it can be worse than that."

Those disturbing memories in my mind, I took a deep breath and slowly peeked around the edge of the frame.

Jerry's bathroom was actually very clean. No "mankinis" lying in the floor or other unmentionables. Just the average things on the sink: deodorant, shaving cream, razor, etc. No, that wasn't entirely true. There was one thing on the sink that wasn't common. A small, round, copper pendant on a golden chain.

I knew what it was, even before I went to it and picked it up with my left hand, my right still holding my staff. It was a necklace made after my own. On one side was the image of a ferocious cat-like animal with tentacle-like whiskers. I hesitated for a moment before flipping the pendant over. Sure enough, on the other side, was my phoenix.

Placing my staff up against the sink, I took off my own necklace and compared the two. There were a few minute differences in some of the flames, and Jerry's coin was just a little bit bigger, but other than those two changes, they were the same. It was pretty impressive how close the craftsman had been just with the image on Jerry's cellphone.

The copper was old and tarnished naturally, unlike Ronnie's, which had been colored artificially with some sort of chemical at the Fair. Naturally tarnished copper is darker. From experience with my own necklace, I knew Jerry's had become like it was from him wearing it for a long time. Even if one washes and cleans the copper, some of the tarnish just _won't_ come off.

"And to think," I muttered. "On the day you don't wear it, you run into me."

I sat Jerry's necklace back down on the sink and replaced mine around my neck. Placing my hands on my hips, I looked around.

"Right, now about that shower... Ah, hell! I don't have anything to change into!"

Ignoring the fact I'd been in the same clothes for five years, I could still wear my pants, socks, boots...underwear. But my shirt was ruined. I really couldn't walk around Jerry's house without a shirt. I couldn't walk anywhere without a shirt. Might be a bit of a distraction.

Perhaps I could use one of Jerry's? No, that wouldn't work. Well, it would work, but to do that, I'd have to know which one of those bedrooms was his and where his shirts were. If he had a closet, it was a no brainer, but if he had a dresser or chest-of-drawers, I'd be forced to go through them. No, thank you. The bathroom was safe. I huffed in frustration.

"I have a big head, and little arms," I said, flailing my hands, "and I'm starting to wonder how well this plan was thought through! ...Jerry!"

Snatching my staff, I stormed out of the bathroom.

"How the _hell_-" I paused, stomped back into the bathroom, snatched his necklace off the counter, and then continued on. "How the _hell_ am I supposed to shower with no clothes, ya perverted twit!"

**.**

**.**

**.**

**A/N: Tasmanian Devils have, like, the third strongest jaw-strength of any animal on the planet. So, ya. And that's this planet, not Gaia. There's no Tasmania on Gaia. But there is a Korean BBQ plate and a Texas sign in Seventh Heaven. LAWLWTF?**

**I swear, this is the last time Saan sounds like a broken record x.x. On the plus side, REFRESHER COURSE, LAWL. Yeah, it took me WAY longer to write this than I thought it would. I was faced with so many decisions and, long story short, I chiseled my way through doubt, writer's block, and then stuff I've had planned for years went down the toilet for better things. They'll leave Kalm next. I swear. Kalm will be a thing of the past. And unlike my false promises of updates, I actually mean it this time.**

**Fans: WTF HAPPEN TO JERRY? WHY HE NO DIPSHIT, SUCK-UP BOI?  
Saan: Basic human psychology. You know it as 'character development.' I'm so mentally exhausted right now I have no better explanation.**

**By the by, "I was dead at the time," I took from Eddie Izzard. Google him. Better yet, watch this www. youtube. com/ watch?v=RegxuU8NOhs Probably about five of you will actually watch that. :/**

**Title for chapter comes from Secrets by OneRepublic. Revel in the irony.**

And I leave you with Ronnie's words of wisdom:  
RJ Arkright: I should be a -publishist-  
Saan: I tawt I taw a puddy-tat


	6. The Sweet Escape

**A/N: Whoa, caps lock. Okay, I saved this document last on September 1. I wrote nothing but the Kudos section, which is outdated, the editor, and the critic. So, using my awesome powers of deduction, I can surmise that I planned on writing almost three months ago, as it is now Christmas Eve. Herp-a-derp.**

**Kudos: Dreylen, SrgntDrew, S. Voltaire, Blue Fire Lily, Yuleen75, WHOEVER. I am not psychic, future reviewers. Also, I have no Net so I can't check my e-mail to see who reviewed past that. I are sad.**

**Editor: Irish-Brigid—Rabid Cloud Fan-Girl Extraordinaire. "And you have the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen! ;-;" Do you even remember that? It seems like so long ago D:****  
****Critic: Yuleen75—I love you like Genesis loves Angeal. FIRA TO FACE, LAWLS! (It falls under that "shooting someone in the face is the universal sign of friendship" law I established last chapter.)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of the movies I reference with miscellaneous quotes. I do, however, own this plot, Saan, Jerry, Ronnie, and a zoo****.**** I also love how the chapters I think are going to be relatively short turn out to be the longest ones… -stares at word count- I didn't mean to, honest! I promised to get you out of Kalm…**

.

.

It would appear that Jerry's plan wasn't the only one to not have been thought through. My plan was to leave his house, find him and Ronnie, and then inform the two that I needed clothes before I could cleanse my body of whatever rank germs were still clinging to it from the Mako tank, fighting for half a day, and bleeding all over myself. After purchasing clothes, I would return to Jerry's house, shower, and then perhaps find something to eat. _And then_, I would crash on his loveseat because I had absolutely no desire to return to the Inn and get jumped by Cloud, Tifa, and or Aerith. Add in cleaning that bloodstained couch somewhere in that plan.

However, I did not take into account a lot of variables that were _slightly_ important. For one, I had no idea where the weapon shop was. Two, I had no wallet on me, thus no money, thus no way to pay for clothes. I'd checked my pockets after making it about ten feet from Jerry's door, which was shortly after I'd realized I had no idea where the hell I was going. Three, should I find the weapon shop, there was the possibility that Jerry and Ronnie would have already departed from the building to go to the clothing store. Four, I had no idea where the clothing store was; therefore, if Jerry and Ronnie were to leave before I got to them, I'd be lost _again_.

Pausing in my stride, I grabbed at my cheeks and proceeded to try and slowly rip them down my face.

"I am fuckin' re-tard-ed," I growled to myself. Throwing my arms into the air, I exclaimed, "Where the hell do I think I'm going? I don't know where I'm at. I don't know where to go. My friends abandoned me. I'm going to pretend one part of my brain did not just tell me that was understandable, all things considered."

I tightened my grip on Jerry's coin and held it in front of my face. I shook it angrily, the metal chain flopping around, beating the back of my hand and knuckles, only serving to make me more irritated.

"What good _are_ _you_?" I glared at the offensive object. "Hah! Wonder twin powers activate! Hoo-wah!" I tossed the necklace in the air, watching it with manic delight as it twisted and turned before landing on the stone streets. I stared at it for half a minute before jerking violently, "You're supposed to point me in the right direction, you useless piece of shit!"

"Ma'am, are you alright?" Some random, masculine voiced asked me.

"No-ho-_ho_!" I replied with a whine, falling to my knees, my staff clattering against the stones as I grabbed at the ground. Beating my head against the road twice, I came to the conclusion that the blue rock under my face was _very_ intriguing at close proximity. "I've lost my mind," I continued lamely.

I paused for a second, remembering a quote from my childhood, and then glanced up quickly to look at the concerned citizen. He was a young man, with chestnut-colored hair and brown eyes. Very Average Joe. Those were the types that usually gave a damn, when I recalled my past dealings with randomly concerned citizens. No bishonen types ever gave a damn. They'd stare at you, judging you, make a snappy comment about how you're lower than dirt, or even lower than an ant, which for some reason was always lower than dirt, and then walk off, leaving you to your despair. Yes, I was thinking about a certain silver-haired man.

"You haven't found it, have you?" I asked the man.

It was amusing how his face scrunched up in confusion, "What?"

"My missing piece?" I asked, poking the back of my head. "My primary memory circuit?"

"Uh. N-no?" He replied, taking a small step backwards. A very small step. I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't been looking for it, waiting for it to happen.

I had to get out of there. For some unknown reason, I was abnormally manic, especially since I had just finished reliving a nightmare about three times in a row. I don't think I was handling it well. I was one stage away from twitching and running around like a squirrel. If the man thought my behavior was strange now, he hadn't seen anything yet.

"Right-o!" I shouted, clapping my hands together. "Such a pity, but I guess it can't be helped. Can you point me in the direction of the weapon shop?"

The man was shocked by my sudden request, but he smiled politely and straightened back up, having been stooped over a little in case he needed to help me to my feet. He pointed with his right hand back under the archway, the way Jerry, Ronnie, and I had come from.

"Oh, sure! It's just under that archway, up the first flight of stairs you come to, and is the first building on your right. The Materia and weapon shops are in the same building. Saves space and most Materia are used for fighting, right?" He laughed merrily, rubbing the back of his head.

"Right," I agreed, a little too readily. "I'll just be on my way now."

I hopped to my feet as quickly as I could, making sure to grab Jerry's necklace off the ground as well as my staff. The kind, young man gave me a little room, but he was still looking at me somewhat expectantly.

"Are you _sure_ you're okay, Miss? I can tell you're new here. If you need help, I can—"

I turned on my heels and bolted for the archway. Despite his best efforts to be civil, and kind, and that friendly neighborhood whatever, that was the last thing I needed during one of my "spastic" moods. Though, it _was_ refreshing to be met with hospitality from a stranger on the streets, as opposed to Midgar's strangers who generally helped you because they wanted to get laid or they simply mugged you. I think I've covered those two scenarios before.

"No, thank you! Kthxbai!" I shouted to him as I began sprinting.

If I ran, I was certain I could catch Jerry and Ronnie before they left the weapon shop. No way would Ronnie be able to pick something that quickly. Generally, when we went shopping, he would get what he came for and then spend another hour or more dicking around, which drove me insane, and no amount of my griping would make him cease and desist. It was even more annoying when he had no money and, yet, he persisted to look at _everything_.

Plus, perhaps running would cool off some of the steam that was powering me faster than a locomotive. I doubted it, but it was worth a shot.

In a few short moments, I had passed under the archway, up the stone steps that were nothing compared to Shin-Ra's, and had made it to the weapon shop. I briefly saw the exterior of the building, two doors, on either side, each with corresponding signs hinting at what product was sold within, before I turned sharply towards the door with a sign that had swords on it. I somehow managed to turn the doorknob before smacking into the door, swung it open full force, and took a little satisfaction in the surprised yelps that came from within.

The Materia lady was standing behind her counter, her hand to her chest in surprise. She was staring at me with wide eyes. I stared back with equally wide eyes. A short glance at my surroundings let me know that they kept the Materia behind the counter and in a storage room directly behind that. The weapon shop was a little more lenient with its protective measures against thieves, but then again, the man standing behind the counter _did_ have a shot gun easily within reach. He was also frowning at me, his bushy, greying eyebrows knitted together in annoyance. A shorter glance let me know that Jerry and Ronnie were not within sight.

"What do you want?" The man grumbled. "Bargin' in here like ye own the place."

The arm I'd used to fling open the door I finally dropped to my side. I _tried_ to reply calmly, "Jerry. Where'd he go?"

"Oh?" The old man asked, leaning his head over to one side as he stared at me suspiciously. "And why ye want ta know?"

I brought my head forward, blinking in disbelief, then shook it slowly. I opened my mouth to say something, but no words came to mind. I pretended to be a fish for a second or two, and then stood back, brought my finger up, only to let it drop in defeat.

Stepping a little ways into the room, I gently closed the door behind me and gave the old man the most polite smile I could manage, trying my best not to look like the Joker. Then, I calmly wrapped both hands tightly around my staff, strangling it along with Jerry's necklace.

"Let's try this again," I breathed. "Jerry. Orange hair and eyes. 'Bout half a head taller than me. Came in with a dark-headed fellow in an almost-black suit. _His_ name's Ronnie. Where did they go?"

"_Please_, stop interrogating my boss."

My eyes snapped to the blindingly orange-headed fellow stepping out from the back room, a box of miscellaneous pointy objects resting in his arms. I grinned widely.

"Oh, there you are!" I chirped. Removing my left hand from my staff, I chucked his necklace at him as hard as I could. "You forgot something."

Jerry caught the coined jewelry easily, blinking in slight surprise at the speed of with which I had thrown it. I was a little surprised myself. Guess all that running didn't help burn off the energy after all. Well, at least I knew where Jerry was. But where was the other one?

"Where's Ronnie?" I asked quickly, vaguely aware I was still smiling.

There was a pregnant pause before Jerry's eyes widened substantially and he dropped the box of pointy things to the ground. The shopkeeper exclaimed and yelled something at Jerry. I wasn't paying attention. Then again, I wasn't concentrating on much of anything.

"Oh, God, you didn't," Jerry muttered.

"No!" I replied happily. Then paused before asking, "Didn't what?"

"Oh, God, you did," he said slowly.

His attention quickly jerked from me to his boss, who was still yelling at him about how clumsy he was and what if he'd injured the merchandise. It figures that he wouldn't be worried about his employee's well-being. Typical business man.

"Boss," Jerry said loudly in order to be heard by the yelling one, "I need to leave for the rest of the day."

"What?" The old man screeched. "Where do ye get off asking for such a thing after ye just dropped gils worth o' stuff on the floor? And ye just got off yer break! Ye ain't goin' nowhere. Yer cleanin' this up and gettin' back to work."

Jerry stared at the man, blinked, took a deep breath, then replied, "Yes, well, my friend over there is in desperate need of help—"

"I'll say!" Jerry's boss interjected. "She almost broke down me door, she did! I'll expect ye to be payin' for it if she put a 'ole in the wall."

Jerry kindly took the man by the shoulders and gave a not-so-gentle squeeze. "Look," he began, "I will gladly pay for any damages caused by me or my friend. But I cannot stay. She _honestly_ needs a little help right now. Have a nice day, Boss."

The old man sputtered indignantly, but Jerry didn't seem to care as he quickly maneuvered around the counter. He walked briskly towards me, pocketing his necklace as he went. I remained where I stood, smiling at him like I had good sense. Which, I thought I did even though he was giving me a determined, yet concerned, stare. It's funny how more than one emotion can be given with just a look. Did you know that ninety-percent of communication is non-verbal? I can't tell you where I heard that last, but for some reason it stuck with me. Even if I couldn't remember much of anything else at that moment. Or perhaps I _could_ remember and I just couldn't _think_ properly.

Continuing on with my inner monologue, which traveled at speeds approaching the sound barrier, I scowled. I didn't know whether or not I should have been worried that there seemed to be a loose connection somewhere in my brain, or that I was pretty sure the meaning of life, the universe, and everything was indeed _not_ forty-two.

Before I could open my mouth and protest this discovery, and the fact that I had left my traveler's towel in Jerry's bathroom, the young man had firmly grasped my elbow and was leading me back out the door.

"Wait, where are we going?" I asked quickly. "We still have to find Ronnie!"

"I pointed the clothing store out to him before I went back to work. He went there first. Said it would be too obvious to folks if a Turk purchased a new weapon that wasn't standard issue," Jerry replied.

"Well, that's oddly insightful of him."

He was leading me back towards the archway. I couldn't go back under the archway! I was supposed to do something first! What was it? Towels. Meaning of the universe. Ronnie. Turk. Still hungry. Getting a little thirsty. Oh, that's right! I needed clothes.

Frowning, I halted in my steps and tried, and failed, to pull my elbow from Jerry's grasp.

"Wait, I need clothes. And a weapon. No, I have a weapon. Ronnie needs the weapon _and _clothes. I just need clothes so I can shower. Which you ordered me to do." My frowned worsened as I looked at Jerry. I was vaguely aware that he seemed apprehensive. I continued, asking, "Do you even _have_ the rank to order me around?"

"Yes," he deadpanned. "I have the rank to order you around. Now be a good little cadet and follow me back to my house. We'll just wait there for Ronnie to get back and everything will be fine. You need to get out of the streets and sit down somewhere."

My jaw dropped, "I am _not_ a cadet! I was never in the Army." I squinted at him, "You're _lying_. There's something you're not tellin' me. I can smell it—see it—sense it. Something. Am I talking abnormally fast, or is that just me? Wait. It would have to be me either way, in that case, wouldn't it? I mean, if I was talking abnormally fast, it sure as hell couldn't be _you_, right? Ha ha ha! I make sense!"

I nearly jumped out of my skin as I felt Jerry's hands slap me on each side of my face. I hadn't even seen him move.

"What?" I squeaked.

"You are _high_," he replied, staring intently into my eyes.

I tried to do the same, but for some reason, my eyes couldn't sit still in their sockets long enough to accomplish that task.

"I am _not_!" I shouted indignantly. "I most _certainly_ am not! I've never been drunk _once_ in my life. Wait, you said 'high.' I've never been _high_ once in my life, either! Quite proud of that running streak, if I do say so myself. Ronnie can't say the same, though. He likes drinking. Only, when I'm not around. He knows I'll pummel him if he does. Drink with me around, I mean—"

I kept talking, but I couldn't hear what was coming out because Jerry had placed one of his hands over my mouth. I had half a mind to lick him, but then again, I had no idea where his hand had been. So, instead, I kept mumbling.

"Good, God!" He sighed in exasperation. "I think _that's_ obvious considering your tolerance level. There was a glass of…_something…_on the kitchen table. How much of it did you _drink_?"

He removed his hand, placing it on my shoulder. His other hand joined its fellow on my remaining shoulder. I blinked, squinted, thought about his implications, and didn't particularly care. I didn't particularly care about anything at that moment, though.

"All of it," I replied shortly.

"All of—!" Jerry stuttered. He bowed his head and groaned. He looked back up at me, making a point to try and make eye contact, and explained, "That was not a drink, Saan. That was a drug. It wasn't meant for you, Ronnie, hell, it wasn't even meant for _me_. It was meant for a friend of mine who actually needs it…And you drink _all of it_. Normally, I'd be upset over having wasted something that is expensive and kind of _illegal_ to possess as a civilian, but I'm more worried about your well-being right now."

"D'aw," I cooed. "Ain't that sweet." I frowned suddenly and accusingly asked, "Why are you dealing in drugs?"

"I'm not dealing in— Okay. Let's try this again, starting with the facts. …Even though you probably won't be able to understand anything I say in your current condition. The drug you so effortlessly consumed was meant to be used by SOLDIERs. It helps with the effects of Mako. Think of it as a very strong pain reliever. I mixed it in soda. Easy way to conceal it. My friend is an ex-SOLDIER who's recently quit Shin-Ra and needed the medicine for withdrawals. He was going to stop by while I was at work. Did you get all that?"

I nodded vigorously, "SOLDIERs get pain relievers for having glowing liquid shoved in them and there's a secret organization of underground ex-SOLDIERs running around who need the stuff. This is getting interesting. Do we get spiffy uniforms for joining? I want one. At least I'll have clothes ready for after I take my shower."

"You are so far off the deep end right now, it's not even funny," Jerry mumbled. His hands dropped from my shoulders. Rubbing his eyebrows, he went on, "As I was saying, the drug is only supposed to be used by SOLDIERs."

"I'm a SOLDIER," I interrupted.

"No. I mean those that have had Mako injected into them. You never had that. So, that wonderful little concoction that you drank earlier is having _interesting_ effects on your body."

I gave an exaggerated gasp and quickly covered my chest with my arms.

"Brain," Jerry quickly corrected. "It's having interesting effects on your _brain._"

"Damn," I swore. "And here I was hoping I'd give Tifa a run for her money."

Jerry raised an eyebrow and deadpanned, "Tifa? _Really_?"

"The girl that dressed like a cowgirl in a climate that suggests you dress up like anything but? Yes. You know, growing up where I did, I think it's understandable that I have a certain hate for all things stereotypically Southern. I mean, so what if I lived in-between two cow fields, and the school had a creek that would flood the parking lot, and we had a Tractor Day, and one of my best friends owned a farm with cattle, horses, and goats, and I think he said he found a car when they mowed one of the old fields? …No one I knew wore cowboy outfits, or hats, or boots, or butt-less chaps!"

After I finished my tirade, I finally looked back at Jerry, having somehow spaced out while looking at a spot over his left shoulder. He was obviously confused and a _little_ scared.

"_Right_. I'm glad no one you knew wore butt-less chaps?" He half-asked. "I think we need to get you to some place _far_ away from people and _now_ before you do or say something we'll all regret later."

"Like what?" I asked, bouncing in place, "That I'm an ex-Turk, ex-SOLDIER who's now working with—Mmf!"

"Yes!" Jerry shouted, grinning despite the fact he'd just silenced me with his hand once again, "Like that! It's _amazing_ how agreeable you are when you're under the influence. Amazing and _really_ annoying. Go back to being an ass, please—"

I always was an ass. An ass _and_ a bitch. Sometimes I took great pride in my personality. Other times I wondered why people ever put up with me. At that moment in time, while I was being extremely agreeable, I decided to pretend to be that rank under Jerry's. And it _did _sound as if he'd just given me an order. I _had_ to obey orders, right? Can't go against a superior's orders, or you might get court-marshaled or something!

I quickly saluted Jerry. Then, I opened my mouth wide and chomped down on his hand as hard as I could. Well, as hard as I dared. I didn't particularly want blood squirting into my mouth and running down my chin. That'd just be disgusting.

Jerry actually screamed.

"Shit!" He screeched, trying to wriggle his hand out of my mouth.

I always found it fascinating to watch people bend and twist when trying to free themselves from something. They move their arms, shoulders, torso, but never the appendage that's snared. What part of evolution triggers that?

Jerry slammed his free hand against my forehead and tried to push me away. He managed to push my head back at an uncomfortable angle, but I didn't let up my relentless assault. Growling, he slipped his hand down to my nose, pinching it between his thumb and forefinger.

"Let go!" He shouted.

"Mo!" I muffled back, bound and determined I would win.

"You have to breathe sometime!" He hissed.

"Me'her!"

I lashed out with my right hand, letting my staff drop, and grabbed a hold of Jerry's nose. Ha ha! Two could play that game. But, I also had an advantage. I had one extra hand, what with one of Jerry's in my mouth and the other on my nose. He couldn't win!

"D'eh! W-what?" Jerry stuttered in disbelief. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me. You can't be serious! I can still breathe through my mouth, you dumb ass!"

I slammed my left hand over his mouth. Not anymore!

Jerry growled lowly in his throat. I imitated him around his hand. He licked me.

Immediately, I thought of all the germs that had just transferred themselves onto my hand. And that made me realize Jerry's hand had germs on it, too. Then I remembered I had thought of that before, and that's why I hadn't licked him in the first place. What the fuck was I thinking? I'd contaminated myself! Abort, abort!

"AUGH!" I cried out, consequentially letting go of Jerry's hand.

Before I knew what was happening, Jerry had me. Using his left hand, he grabbed my left wrist, spun me around, grabbed the back of my neck with his right hand, and down I went. I stared at the blue road of Kalm for the second time that day, up close and personal. I blinked a few times, aware of Jerry's knee in my back, my left arm wrenched up behind me.

"Well, that was unexpected," I chirped. "Though, you're going easy on me. If you mean to keep me here, you might try turning my arm just a bit so that it feels like it's about to pop out of socket. Just some friendly advice, Sir."

"Oh, trust me, _Cadet_," Jerry replied nonchalantly. "If I wanted you injured, you would be."

"Ooh. That sounds like something_ I_ would say." I turned my head to glance at Jerry from the corner of my eye, "I _like_ it."

"I'm gone for, like, fifteen minutes and you kids can't play nice?"

Hearing Ronnie's voice, I turned my head the other way. He was standing a few feet away with his arms crossed, an eyebrow raised in amusement and a small smile on his lips. My eyes traveled down his attire. An open, white button-up shirt, with thin, grey, vertical stripes, its sleeves rolled up to his elbows. That was over a plain, black undershirt. His pants were well-fitted, not too baggy or too tight, and a faded brown. Lastly, peeking out beneath those was a pair of brown loafers.

My eyes traveled back up to his face.

"You look horrible," I said.

Ronnie frowned, "Gee, thanks, Saan. I'm so glad I have you around to criticize my choice in clothing. You make me feel so good about myself."

"Why, thank you, Ronnie. If that's how you feel, I'll keep going and point out where you went wrong. First, you paired brown with black. No one who's anyone pairs brown with black. I guess they think they look like shit, literally, if they do so. Second, why the hell would you choose loafers? They're uncomfortable as hell, they look expensive, and we're going to be walking _everywhere_ on our little quest because none of us has a mode of transportation. Before we even get halfway to where we're going, you're going to be complaining nonstop that your feet are killing you and you've ruined your shoes by stepping in mud. Though, since your shoes are brown, maybe stepping in mud won't bother you as much as it would if they were black, or some other horrendous loafer color like _light purple_."

"Uh-_huh_," Ronnie nodded, slowly, his eyebrows knitted together.

I felt Jerry's weight shift on top of me. His knee remained on my lower back, however. I was momentarily grateful that he hadn't slammed it into my little wound when he threw me to the ground not a minute ago. Before I thought to thank him, I was side-tracked by the thought that I'd left something out when diagnosing Ronnie's fashion sense.

Jerry sighed, "Can you please help me with _this_?" Out of my peripheral, I saw him motion to me with his hand with a nice sweeping motion. Vanna White would have been proud. Only Jerry wasn't wearing a dress. That would be amusing. Right! Dresses.

"Help you with what?" Ronnie asked the orange-headed man. "_Why_ are you sitting on her?"

"Oh!" I interjected, "There is one thing you did right, however. You chose a shirt that, though long-sleeved, can easily roll up. That will come in handy depending on what weapon you choose. Don't want blood or monster guts getting on that spiffy white shirt, after all. Oh! And it helps with changes in the weather and climate. It'd be bad to have long sleeves in the desert or short sleeves on a mountain. You don't think we'll be going to any of those places do you? I remember seeing some of those areas on different continents."

The look on Ronnie's face was priceless. His eyes had widened a bit, his lips pressed together to form a small line. He was obviously shocked and more than little apprehensive. He was quickly approaching a tad bit scared.

"What is she on?" He asked anxiously, pointing at me with his finger.

"Oh, so you noticed?" Jerry asked jokingly. "Good! Because she didn't."

"Nope!" I agreed heartily. Grinning, I explained, "I drank some magic potion, and now…I'm sexy!"

The corners of Ronnie's mouth twitched.

"No, you're not," Jerry replied. A strangled noise came after that, followed by, "No, you didn't!"

Ronnie's eyebrows raised, "Oh?"

"She drank something, yes. But it definitely was _not_ a magic potion—"

"And it did not make me sexy; my breasts are still the same size."

"Yes, they are," Jerry agreed. Another strangled sound followed momentarily by a deep breath and quick exhale. "She's doing this on purpose, isn't she? She's trying to make me look like a fool in front of everybody? Because, so far, she's not only used a drug I was _going_ to administer to a friend, but she's nearly knocked a hole in the wall at my job by throwing open the door, interrogated my boss, probably made me lose my job, and then chowed down on my hand."

Ronnie, who had been biting his bottom lip for some time, finally asked, his voice cracking a little, "Is that why you have her on the ground?"

"No," I replied eagerly. "First of all, I would like to clarify that he ordered me to be an ass, so I was just following orders. But, after I bit him, he pinched my nose in a futile attempt to make me release his hand. I refused to give up and then pinched _his_ nose and covered_ his_ mouth in retaliation. _That's_ when he threw me to the ground. Then you walked up all, 'Yo!' and here we are!"

Ronnie suddenly burst into laughter. I think he'd been holding it in for a while. He laughed so hard that he doubled over, tears streaming down his face. I pouted. There was nothing funny about me losing to Jerry! The little bastard…

"Great. Nice," Jerry commented. "Laugh it up. I'll just…continue to sit on her. Not like I had other plans or anything."

"I'm sorry! I-I— Bwah hahaha!"

"No, no," Jerry replied. He looked away from Ronnie for a second and then looked back. "Take your time."

"I can't _breathe!_" Ronnie whined, wiping his eyes with the heels of his palms.

Ronnie finally calmed down after a few minutes. A few minutes I spent on the ground with Jerry still kneeling on me. I found it odd that he would keep me like that, what with pedestrians stopping to look every now and again. I think the only reason they didn't say anything was because Ronnie was about to piss himself from laughing. They all probably thought we were just joking around. Plus, I'd give the strangers the best grins I could to put their minds at ease.

"Oh, oh," Ronnie breathed. "This is better than that time she took a sleeping pill instead of her morning vitamin just before school. _Or_ the time she took a sleeping pill just before we went skating."

"What about that time you took three pain relievers and two nausea pills at the same time because you thought you had to _catch up_ on your dosages?" I asked. I looked back at Jerry, "He'd had dental work done and the dentist gave him pain pills. But they made him throw up. So he gave him stomach pills, too."

Jerry was frowning down at me.

Ronnie wiped his tear-soaked hands on his pants, "Well, I can't remember much of that day past falling out of my chair on the bus, so I can't compare it to that. Besides, that's stuff _I've_ done. You, on the other hand…"

"You don't still take those sleeping pills, do you?" Jerry asked, concerned.

"Nope," I answered. "Doctor said they'd mess me up if I kept taking them. So, I stopped. That was years ago, though. Like, almost twelve years ago, I'd imagine."

Jerry breathed a sigh of relief, "Good. I'm not sure how the Mako drug reacts with downers."

"You're not supposed to take uppers with downers," I explained happily. "Or downers with depressants. Wait, aren't downers and depressants the same thing? I just know you're not supposed to drink with sleeping medication because it can kill you. And taking a stimulate with a depressant makes your body freak the fuck out. Basically, don't take downers with anything. Better yet, don't take medicine. Problem solved!"

"This…is awesome," Ronnie said, grinning from ear to ear.

"No, no it's not." Jerry glared at Ronnie. "Unless you've forgotten, you two are on a quest to save the world from the evil Shin-Ra, or something that sounds equally fantastical and ridiculous. Your little group will no doubt be leaving, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, from the Inn _early_ tomorrow morning."

"You don't think the drug will last that long, do you?" Ronnie asked with a frown.

"No, it won't," Jerry replied. "However, what goes up must come down…"

"Oh," Ronnie deflated. "You don't know how long the crash will last."

"No. Especially since her body's not as strong as a regular SOLDIER's."

"You lie," I snapped. "I'll have you know, I was a First. So what if I couldn't dodge bullets or morph into some weird griffon thingar? I killed a Behemoth, you know. _And_ a Nibel dragon. I am plenty strong!"

Jerry was silent for a moment, staring down at me blankly, before replying, "_We_ killed the dragon."

I stuck my tongue at him childishly, "I've also handled a Black Widow and Sephiroth program in the Training Room."

"_Programs_, Saan. They don't count."

"I have a scar under my left eye that says otherwise, thank you very much."

"I hate to interrupt your quarrel, but…we're starting to draw a crowd," Ronnie mumbled. "Maybe you should stop sitting on a skinny, little girl and restrain her like a civil man. For the masses. Before we get arrested. Or worse, AVALANCHE sees you and does something…drastic. Or something. Yeah."

Jerry and I looked around. Sure enough, a few pedestrians were staring at us. Most were curious, but a few concerned faces here and there. I wiggled a little, weighing Ronnie's words. Yes, I didn't particularly want to get arrested. I'd only been in jail once in my life, but I did not have plans to go back. Can't take me alive, Turks! Neither did I want to be seen in my position by Cloud & Co. That would be more than a little demeaning to my reputation.

My orange-headed captor quickly brought me to my feet. I wobbled a little, but had nothing to fear. Jerry had a firm grip on my left elbow. I grinned to the audience. They needed to be shown that everything was all right.

I waved with my arms, "Oh, don't worry about me, folks. I'm fine!" Draping my arm over Jerry's shoulders, I leaned on him and continued, "We're old pals."

A small, feminine gasp caught my attention. Looking over my shoulder, some little woman had pointed at me. The man beside her was frowning.

"Are you sure, Miss? You appear to be bleeding."

Oh, that was right! I still hadn't changed my shirt after taking my shower. Not that I'd taken my shower, of course. One thing at a time!

I chuckled lightly, waving my hand in dismissal, "Oh, _that!_ That happened before I got here. I flew into a truck. A friend of mine healed it for me." I reached around behind me and grabbed a hold of my shirt. Pulling it up to expose my back, I asked, "Wanna see?"

Ronnie jaw actually dropped in a look of horror. "Saan!" he shouted in surprise.

"What?" I asked innocently.

My shirt was yanked out of my grasp. Jerry had pulled it down, you see. Then I was swept off my feet and being whisked away. At first the feeling of shifting gravity was exhilarating. Kind of like the hair-pin turns I used to pull in my fighter jet. Lord, rest its soul. But then I remembered I was afraid of heights. I yelped and started to flail.

"O-_kay!_" Jerry grunted, tightening his grip around me as he walked briskly away from the crowd that had gathered. "That's enough out of _you_."

"Put me down. Put me down. Put me down!" I gasped loudly, remembering I'd dropped my staff. "My baby!"

I struggled enough to free my arms. Like a squirrel, I clambered my way up Jerry's chest, not-so-accidentally kneeing him in the abdomen as I did so. Next move: Launch self over shoulders. I didn't make it far. As I tried to jump, Jerry regained control and wrapped both his arms tightly around my knees. I fell without dignity, catching the image of Ronnie scooping up my staff just before gravity won.

"Oof!" I breathed as my stomach slammed into his shoulder. I blinked, watching my hair dangling towards the street. Pouting, I quipped, "Well. This is a nice a view of your ass."

"You like it?" Jerry asked. "Good. Because you're going to be staring at it until we get to the clothing store."

Ronnie was chuckling somewhere behind us. I couldn't see him, my hair veiling my view of everything but it, the road, Jerry's legs—left, right, left—and, of course, his ass.

"Don't fart," I added as an afterthought.

Ronnie snorted loudly.

"Ooh!" I shouted suddenly. "If we're going to get clothes now, that means I can take my shower! Well, if that was the case, you should have just let me take my shirt off. I can't take a shower with my shirt on. Or maybe I should, that way I can wash my clothes at the same time. That sounds like a brilliant plan! I'm glad I thought of it."

"Saan," Jerry groaned. "The shower is _in my house_, you were _in the middle of a street_. Taking your shirt off there would have been pointless."

"She does have a point about showering with your clothes on, though," Ronnie muttered. "Well, you wouldn't get _as clean_ as if you were naked, but it _would_ save on water and laundry detergent."

I felt Jerry look over his shoulder, "Do _not_ encourage her."

"Oh, by all means, encourage me," I said as I tried, and failed, to puff out my chest. That's a little hard to do when you're upside-down and bouncing into someone with each one of their steps. "As for the pointless thing, I would have gotten to your house eventually. I would have been prepared."

"I'm not even going to humor that line of thought. I really am not."

"I can feel the blood pounding in my eyeballs, just so you know."

"That's great," Jerry responded. "Maybe with all your blood in your brain, those cells of yours will fire more rapidly and bring you to your senses."

"Or she'll go blind," Ronnie commented, slightly amused. "Whichever happens first."

One second, I was looking at the backs of Jerry's feet, and then the next I was falling heels-over-head to the ground. I grunted as I landed flat on my back, the world above me spinning a little. Jerry's head soon popped into my line of sight, joined shortly by Ronnie's.

"Wow," Ronnie said. "They are a little bloodshot." He looked across to Jerry, "You do realize you probably just re-opened that wound on her back, right?"

Jerry made a face at him, "Oh, please. She's got a mastered Restore Materia in her staff. I'm surprised she hasn't used it yet."

Ronnie blinked in recognition, "Oh, yeah. I forgot about that." He pointed my staff at me.

"No!" I shrieked, holding my hands in front of me for protection. "No medicine!"

Ronnie smirked, "Materia isn't medicine."

Against my will, he cast Cure on me. My back became warm, the stiffness erased, and I knew the wound had been sealed, most likely without a scar to show my run-in with our escape vehicle. I gasped in horror. And I had been trying so hard not to use that stuff! If I got accustomed to curing myself, I'd become accustomed to hurting myself. Because, you know, who cares if you injure yourself if you can just make the pain go away with the swish and flick of a magic wand?

"You _bastard_," I breathed.

"You're welcome," Ronnie chirped. "That reminds me. I still need a weapon." He handed my staff over to Jerry, "Here. Make sure she gets the most ridiculous outfit they have in there. Oh, and if they have any video cameras, make sure you get the tape."

"Why?" Jerry asked suspiciously as Ronnie began to walk away.

"Because…" Ronnie replied. "The Turks might find out we were here and we need to get rid of the evidence."

Jerry frowned, "And you're sure you don't want the tape just to use as blackmail?"

I heard Ronnie feign a gasp, "No! I would _never_ do something like that."

"Don't let him lie to you," I whispered loudly to Jerry. "He'll show it to Cloud and the others. I _know_ how he works."

Jerry finally looked back down at me, "They don't have cameras. This is a tiny shop in Kalm, not the Shin-Ra Building in Midgar."

"But they do have clothes, right?" I asked with a frown.

He was silent for a moment, blinked, and then replied, "It's a _clothing_ store."

I breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh, good. It would be weird for a clothing store to sell shoes, wouldn't it? No, wait. Shoes are clothes, too. Technically. Now, if they sold vacuums, _then_ something would be wrong. Don't you think so? What kind of clothes do they have?"

"Everything from dresses to hiking apparel. _Why_ are you still lying on the ground?"

I was still lying on the ground because it was comfortable. Or should it be called the floor? Ronnie's mentality was that anything covered with some type of pavement or stone, regardless if it was outside or not, was to be called, 'floor.' Now, why he, on rare occasions, called the sky a ceiling was beyond me.

Ignoring Jerry's question, I grinned mischievously, "I know what I want."

—**FFVII—**

My first waking thought was, "Why am I waking up in the first place?" I was having difficulty thinking. Well, I could think, at least. That was a refreshing change of events. But everything was coming slowly. I felt as if I'd slept for days. Which I knew was impossible, but still. My mouth also felt as if I'd swallowed a cotton ball.

At least a minute passed before I recognized the scent wafting into my nostrils. It was vaguely reminiscent of Jerry and old house. With a groan, I managed to raise my head up a little. Squinting, I made out the texture of fibers and what appeared to be the color white. I let my head drop back down. Whatever my face landed in was soft. A pillow. I hoped it wasn't the cause for the cotton-ball feeling.

"She _liiives_!" Ronnie's voice rang out from somewhere near my head.

It shocked me so bad that I jumped. Or should I say that I would have jumped if my body was cooperating with my brain. Instead, I got a nice rush of adrenaline and stayed as stiff as a corpse. I also swore silently to myself…because my face was in a pillow and couldn't do so out loud.

"How are you feelin', honey?" Ronnie asked merrily.

With as much strength as I could manage, I used my forehead to push my mouth off the pillow and growled, "I. Can't. Move."

"Oh," he replied.

I heard him shuffling. He walked over to me, knocking into the coffee table as he wrapped his hands around my arms. If my memory served correctly, I was lying on the couch and he'd have to have been sitting on the loveseat. With a gentle tug, he had me up and sitting in no time. I squinted because of the light coming from the lamp on the end table. Through the windows in front of me, I could tell the sun had either already set, or it was about to. That meant it was late. I might not have slept for days, but I had slept for hours. Oh, boy.

"That better?" Ronnie asked.

"Yes."

The sound of footsteps on the stairs alerted me to Jerry's arrival. Slowly, I turned to face him. He had changed into what appeared to be his pajamas: a plain, black t-shirt with light-grey sleeping pants. Was it really that late? Looking down at my wardrobe, I noticed I was still wearing the same thing.

"Feeling better?" Jerry asked me as he made his way to the kitchen.

"Am I supposed to feel like shit?" I asked, wobbling a little.

"That depends. What does shit feel like?"

"Hardy-har-har," I grumbled irritably. Letting my head droop so that my chin was almost on my chest, I replied, "None of my muscles want to move and it feels like I ate your pillow."

The sound of running water echoed in the kitchen as Jerry replied, "The muscle thing seems about right, all things considered. Not sure about the dry mouth. You're probably dehydrated. Did you eat or drink anything before coming here?"

I blinked a few times, realizing, "I haven't eaten or drank anything since Nibelheim."

The water in the kitchen stopped. Ronnie flinched a little.

I kept forgetting the Incident was a touchy subject for most folks. Especially since, for Ronnie and Jerry, five years had gone by. For me, it seemed like it happened only yesterday. I hadn't had to wait for someone to come back. I hadn't had to wait for so long. I didn't regret. I wasn't sad or angry that I should have never left, that I could have done more.

I would feel all those things I was sure, given time. But I hadn't had time. Not yet. I was still in denial. I was still trying to keep myself on my feet. Chasing after Jenova, Sephiroth, and Shin-Ra was something I _needed_. Something I had to do to remain myself. Maybe that's why Cloud was fighting so hard. We were trying so hard to keep moving on, that we _couldn't_ move on.

Funny, I always thought you were supposed to be amazingly introspective when you were high, not crashing. Hmm.

"In that case," Jerry said, coming back into the living room with a glass of water, "I'd say you're probably _very_ dehydrated." He handed the glass to me, "Don't worry. This one doesn't have any foreign substances that might alter your brain chemicals."

"Damn," I mocked as I took it from him, slowly so as not to drop it. "And here I thought I was going to see sound and taste light."

"Funny," Jerry mused. "Is that what it does? Because I could have sworn that it made you act like an idiot instead."

"And face-plant the floor while you were shopping," Ronnie added as he plopped back down on the loveseat. He made an amusing face when he accidentally kicked the coffee table.

I paused mid-sip. Swallowing, I slowly removed the glass from my lips and stared into space. I shamefully replayed the day's events in my head. I remembered all the way to the point where I told Jerry that I knew what I wanted to wear. At that point in time, I had only really agreed with myself that I wanted some form of military or hiking boots. They needed to be big, ideal for kicking and stomping, and waterproof. An added bonus would be if they were well-insulated.

But that wasn't important. No, what was important was that I _definitely_ did not remember face-planting the floor. Though, that would explain why I woke up on Jerry's couch.

"I don't remember that part," I mumbled, taking another slow sip of water.

Jerry frowned worriedly, "How much do you remember?"

"Heh heh," I chuckled humorlessly. "Trying to use your necklace as a dowsing rod, threatening your boss, having a _childish_ fight on who could hold their breath the longest, flashing an entire street of innocent bystanders, climbing up you like a rodent, making a comment about your ass, being dropped unceremoniously onto the _ground_, not floor, being healed against my will, and then telling you I had decided what I wanted to wear while still on the ground."

"You know," Ronnie commented, "that's actually _pretty _impressive. I can't remember half the shit I do when I'm drunk. …I'm glad I get drunk alone, now."

Jerry turned from facing Ronnie to look back at me, "Yes, well. After that, you got off the ground. We went in the store. You forced me to sit in a chair outside the changing room because that way it'd be 'just like the movies,'—" here he used air quotes, "—and after that you left me there to go shop. You came back with only _one_ outfit and _one_ pair of boots. You changed into them. You came out of the dressing room wearing a small, dark-green t-shirt, a pair of tan, camouflage cargo pants, and black, military-issue boots. I said you looked fine."

"As all clever men do," Ronnie nodded.

"You went back in and changed back into your old clothes. You brought the new clothes to the shopkeeper. _I_ paid for them because _someone_ claimed to have left their wallet in their other pants, which _were not_ the pants they were buying. And then, as I was getting the change, you finally passed out."

I cringed a little, "Did I actually face-plant?"

"No," Jerry replied. "You just sort of…crumpled."

"And I missed it," Ronnie grumbled. As an afterthought, he added, "And there was no tape."

I shrugged, "Well, at least I have good fashion sense even when I'm off my rocker."

"You'll look like a military nut."

"I _am_ a military nut."

"But we're supposed to be incognito!" He whined.

I took another sip of water and swallowed, "Says the man wearing loafers and a dress shirt. Give ya a gun, and you'd still look like a Turk. Speaking of which, did you _ever_ get a new weapon."

Jerry looked away from Ronnie, "Oh, boy." He walked over to the chair by the bookcase and sat down, "Here we go."

With mild curiosity, my eyes traveled from Jerry to Ronnie, who grinned like the dork he was before he hopped off the loveseat as quickly as he could and disappeared up the stairs. I looked uneasily back at Jerry, who shrugged knowingly. It wasn't long before Ronnie was thundering back down the stairs.

At first, I didn't see his weapon. However, when he turned to walk towards me, I caught sight of some sort of vambrace-looking object on his left arm. I frowned.

"So help me, if that morphs into a suit of armor, I'm going to stab you," I warned.

"Haha, no," Ronnie replied, still grinning. "It just does this."

He held his arm out in front of me. The vambrace seemed plain enough. It had a bronze-colored metal casing on top that was adorned with beveled runic symbols. I had no idea what they said or meant, but they looked fancy. It was tied to his arm using thick leather straps, a fabric cloth under that to keep the straps from rubbing and chafing. There was a thin, cylindrical piece of metal on top of the casing that ran perpendicular to the rest of the vambrace. Three grooves ran from the metal cylinder almost to the end of the vambrace, hinting that all was not as it appeared to be.

Before my brain could process the significance of the grooves, two metal blades shot straight out of the metal casing so fast that I jumped. Actually jumped this time since my body was starting to respond to the impulses it was receiving. Trying to remember how to breathe, I focused on the blades that had scared me shitless. Also bronze-colored, though it was obvious they were made of a stronger metal. They were straight for the most part until near their end, where they curved out slightly and then back in. They reminded me a little of bull horns. Fitting, considering he was a Taurus.

"Pretty neat, huh?" He asked me, a satisfied smile on his face. "Tifa gave me the idea. Well, sort of. I've always liked punching things. I figured adding blades to that would do wonders. Plus, it's such a unique weapon, that I doubt anyone would mistake it for a Turk's."

"It's also a little impractical," Jerry commented, "if you haven't trained with it enough."

Ronnie frowned in annoyance, "Yeah, well, good thing I'll have plenty of time to train while we're killing the monsters out on the road."

"How did you get it to work?" I asked curiously. I grabbed a hold of the device and moved it around so I could see it at different angles. "And how do you make it go back in?"

"Ack! That's attached, you know!" Ronnie scolded, pulling his arm out of my grasp. He held it up for me to see it well. "It's simple, really." He rotated his hand over to show a metal bar that ran under his palm, "There's a button here that, if you press it, pulls on a wire that runs all the way back to this metal piece here," he pointed to the cylinder, "and some little doo-hickey back there releases. The blades are spring-loaded, so they fly out really fast. To put them back in," he grabbed a hold of the metal cylinder, "you just pull this all the way back. That doo-hickey grabs back onto it, and voila!"

Nodding, I looked back up at him, "You do realize that's not actually _simple_, right? That's actually a very complex machine you have strapped to your arm."

Ronnie nodded vigorously, "Oh, I know that. But explaining it was easy!"

"Yes," Jerry said with a mischievous tone to his voice. "We know all about those doo-hickeys."

Ronnie never once took his gaze off me, "You are a very bad influence on him. There'll be two Saan's running around some day."

"Muah ha ha ha," I laughed evilly. "All part of the plan. Anyways," I said, putting my glass on the coffee table, "that only gives you one arm to attack with. Unless you're careful, you might accidentally lose your right one, since you'll probably try and block with it out of instinct."

"Already thought about that!" Ronnie exclaimed. He spun and jogged back upstairs.

I gave another slightly worried look to Jerry from over my shoulder. He simply smirked. Ronnie came thudding back down the steps. This time, on his right arm, was some weird looking piece of thick metal that was strapped to his arm much like his vambrace.

"Is another pair of blades going to come out of this one?" I asked skeptically.

Ronnie smiled smugly. He clicked his tongue. Instantly, the piece of metal on his arm jerked. Not even in the blink of an eye did a sliver of the metal slide out from above the large bar. This was followed by another sliver, and then another, much like when an Asian fan opens, until a round, metallic shield had formed. The pieces joined themselves together with a quiet click.

"Okay, that was impressive," Jerry muttered from behind me.

Ronnie grinned with pride.

"Is that what I _think_ it is," I asked, narrowing my eyes in suspicion.

Ronnie's grin dimmed a little, "You mean, was it made using the same processes and with the same metal composition of those little thingies I used to steal from the science labs? Yes."

"Wait, wait, wait," Jerry said, waving his hands. "Are you saying you stole that from Shin-Ra's labs?"

"No!" Ronnie defended. "Not exactly. And _before_ you say anything, _Saan_, I'm serious this time. Hojo's little flunkies have been trying to replicate your armor forever. They weren't having much luck, but they did figure out how to make a thin, yet strong, metal. Combining it with tiny, like _microscopic,_ computer chips, they produced things like this little shield here. This particular weapon was designed to activate in accordance with a sound. I pulled some strings, gave the scientists some ideas, and procured this little baby the good old-fashioned Turk way."

"You stole it," I replied.

"No! I gave them a fake name, pretended to be some hotshot buyer, gave them a fake bank account that _looked_ real on the computers, and then made them mail the completed product to an abandoned warehouse."

"He stole it," Jerry said.

"Look, I _swindled_, okay? What I did was far more complicated than simply _stealing_."

"What have the Turks been _teaching_ you?" I asked, more than a little disturbed.

Ronnie shrugged, clicking his tongue again. The shield broke apart and went back to its original state in the same manner as when it first formed: piece by piece until it was nothing but a strange looking piece of metal.

"You remember how I used to say I was nothing but a paper boy? A desk-job Turk?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, I was. I just didn't handle the types of papers you thought I did."

My jaw dropped to the floor, "You _lied _to me?"

"Hey!" Ronnie said, holding his hands up in surrender. "That's what Turks do!"

"I'm more creeped out that I didn't catch it!" I replied peevishly.

Ronnie stuck his tongue out at me. He walked around the side of the loveseat and sat down.

Jerking his thumb over his shoulder he said, "Anyways, you better take that shower if you're going to. Your clothes are already in the bathroom. I'll take one after you."

I smiled, "Ronnie. If I take a shower before you, trust me, you won't get to take a shower. It takes me roughly forty-five minutes to get clean and wash my hair. That's generally _just_ enough time to run all the hot water out. If you want to take a shower, I suggest you do it before me. Unless you like cold showers, and then by all means, don't let me stop you."

Reaching for my half-drank glass of water, I caught Jerry's stunned expression out of my peripheral. I knew what he was thinking, I often thought it myself. How does it take someone so damn long in the shower? Well, there was one definitive answer.

"I have _really_ long hair. Trust me, shampooing and conditioning it is no easy feat."

"Cold showers I can live with, it's the thought of not washing my hair that scares me more. Fine, I'll take one before you. I'll be back in a few minutes. Like, ten or fifteen. A _reasonable_ amount of time," Ronnie said as he got off the couch, making his way to the bathroom.

I pouted, "I said it takes me a long time to wash my hair, not that it takes an entire bottle of shampoo and conditioner."

"I'm not taking any chances," he mumbled in response.

Rolling my eyes, I tilted back my head and focused on finishing off the water Jerry had given me. I placed the empty glass on the table. Leaning back on the couch, I looked out the front windows. The sun had set completely and there was barely any light left. Chances were, by the time Ronnie got out of the shower, it would be completely dark out there. I mused over how amazing it was that one could only ever _really _tell how fast the Earth was moving at sunrise and sunset. Well, Gaia.

I frowned. Depressing histories. Yay. They seemed to be everywhere.

The room was silent for a while. A very uncomfortable while, I might add. The only source of noise coming from the faint sounds of running water and the uncannily loud ticking of the clock on the wall to my left.

"I'd like to ask you something," I said suddenly, looking over at Jerry.

He frowned, "Ask what?"

"What happened to you after I told you to skedaddle from the Turks back in Nibelheim? How did you end up here in Kalm, of all places, working in a weapon shop?"

"Ha! I knew that was coming," he mumbled. Sighing, he asked, "You know what? Fine. You told me yours, I'll tell you mine. You want the long story, or the long story made short?"

I didn't have to think about that one much, "Long story made short. Ronnie tends to be very accurate on his shower predictions. Eerily so."

"Well, using the cover of darkness to my advantage, I somehow stumbled my way back down the Nibel Mountains without being seen by the Turks. Don't ask me how, I have no idea. I must have been lucky. Our paths never crossed.

"However, as I was leaving Nibelheim, I almost ran straight into Shin-Ra forces. They'd rounded up most of the people who had tried to escape. Some of them we'd helped ourselves. I figured they were most likely detaining them for questioning just like you had said they would.

"I was worried about you, but I knew it would be stupid to try and go back up the mountain. I'd have been caught for sure."

Jerry chuckled a little, "I didn't want to face your wrath if you had to save my ass again."

I smiled softly.

He continued, "Since I was clad in civilian's clothes—that innkeeper's husband's—it was easy for me to catch a ride with some strangers. They were out randomly hunting for Nibel Wolves so that they could get the pelts. They said the fur would be used for rugs and clothing. Said city folk paid a lot for stuff like that.

"I used the kindness of strangers to make my way back to the Eastern Continent. I knew it might be dangerous to return to Midgar. So, instead, I came here to Kalm. I didn't contact my family; I didn't contact Shin-Ra…not directly. I did take a risk in calling you, though. You never answered.

"After a month of no contact with either you or Ronnie, I panicked. Reports had come in that Sephiroth had died. There was no mention of Anubis. I knew something was up, that something was off. I risked a few trips to Midgar, to try and get information from some of my old friends, people I knew I could trust. But that proved fruitless. So, I chose to stay in Kalm.

"I applied for work at the weapon shop. I used the savings my parents had given me years before to put a down-payment on this house. At first, almost everything I made went into this house. But, over time, I began to take little odd jobs here and there. Mostly fighting monsters and things that had moved in too close to the city walls. Traveling merchants don't really like the thought of being ambushed while out on the road.

"I had a house, I had a job, I had a little money in my pocket, and I tried to eke out a living. A very boring, lonely living, but at least it was something." Tearing his eyes off the space he'd been staring at, he focused back on me, "That's about it."

"So," I began, "you've just been fighting monsters and selling arsenal all this time?"

"Something like that."

I frowned thoughtfully as I looked back out the front windows. Jerry had been fighting monsters for almost the entire time that I had been gone? Years of non-stop training… He would have to have _at least_ gone up a rank in SOLDIER's standards. He used to be a Third. Though, I remembered one time how he had said he would have been a Second if it wasn't for Lazard's disappearance. Did that make him equal to that of a First Class?

Casting a sideways glance at him, I finally decided to acknowledge that he _would_ be able to handle himself if he followed me. I knew he was going to. He'd been dropping hints here and there all day about coming with me. He couldn't come with us because of our group's size...but, maybe, he could tail us.

Before I could carry that train of thought any further, Ronnie returned from his shower. Taking a quick peek at the clock, he'd almost taken fifteen minutes. Seriously, that was creepy.

"Shower's free," he said, stating the obvious as he dried his hair with a towel.

I was just thankful that he'd chosen to put on his pants _before_ exiting the bathroom for once. He had forgone his shirt, though. His copper necklace was resting just under his clavicle, still a wolf howling at the moon.

"Well, then," I replied. "I guess it's a good thing I'm feeling well enough to take mine then. I'll be back…eventually."

I pushed myself off the couch, making sure I didn't wobble or anything. I was fine. As I walked around the coffee table, Ronnie brought up the topic of food.

"I'm starving to death."

"I'll cook something," Jerry sighed, pushing himself out of his chair.

"What you got?" Ronnie asked as I began up the stairs.

"…food? Why? Is there something specific you wanted?"

I snorted, as the last thing I heard before I closed the door was the two of them arguing over who was going to cook. Turning from the door, I surveyed the bathroom.

Sure enough, my new clothes were sitting on the edge of the sink. I would have complained that whoever had laid them there had put my new boots on top of my clothes, but since they were new, it wasn't like they had any mud on the soles or anything.

Ronnie had been kind enough to clean the shower some. No clogged drains or slippery tubs for me. Shampoo? Check. Conditioner? Check. Clean razor? Under the sink, check. Washcloth? Check. Clean towels? In the little hamper in the corner, check. Once everything was accounted for, I turned to face the shower while thinking, "Let's do this."

The shower itself was routine enough. Shampoo, rinse, conditioner, rinse, wash, shave, hop out of the shower hella fast because the water turned frigid near the end. After the shower was routine enough, too. Towel dry hair, dry self, clothe self, pitifully try to comb hair with Jerry's little comb and fail miserably at it, glare at image in mirror because hair is starting to curl, as usual.

"Why?" I begged my reflection. "Why do you curl? Why do you curl _unevenly_? I'm going to have annoying curls near my ears and underneath, and then the back's just gonna frizz out like Cousin It. _Why_ can you not be consistent? That's all I ask!"

With an angry huff, I slammed my hands into my pockets. Only to blink in surprise as my right hand felt something foreign. Wrapping my hand around the object, I pulled it out of my pocket. Lo-and-behold, there was a black scrunchie. I stared at it in confusion. Odd. I knew neither Jerry nor Ronnie would have a scrunchie, so they obviously didn't put it there. And I didn't remember getting one. But, then again, I didn't remember the entire time I spent in the clothing store.

I slowly moved my eyes back to my reflection. "I _stole_ a scrunchie…" After mulling that over for a bit, I said, "I'm not complaining."

It took me a minute to get the wet mop known as my hair in the damn hair-tie, but eventually I succeeded. Pulling the ponytail tight at the base of my skull, I looked at my reflection. I most definitely looked like a military nut. Though, I had to hand it to High Saan. She knew how to color coordinate. I was glad she'd chosen the pants she did. Tan camo went better with the dark green shirt than green camo. Too much green and I'd've looked like a walking tree. No, thank you. Plus, the pants were designed so that they were baggy at the top and got skinny near the bottom. Perfect for fitting in a pair of boots without annoyingly bunching up. I silently praised the designer.

"Much better," I said in triumph.

I piled my dirty clothes and the dirty towels in the same basket Ronnie's washcloth was in. With that done, I left the bathroom. Walking down the stairs, I knew immediately that dinner was done. I could smell it, and it smelled good.

Ronnie had moved to the couch and was wolfing down his plate of food. Much irony there. Jerry was back in his chair, lazily poking at some rice. A brief glance at both plates, aided with the smell, let me know we were having chicken with some sort of sweet-smelling sauce and rice. Mmm, Asian food. Although, there was no Asia on Gaia, so… Mmm, Wutaian food. Or was it Wutainese? Why did I never find that out? How many times did I pass Tseng in the halls and on missions, and each time, the question just slip my mind? Probably because all those times I was too busy either staring at that damn distracting dot on his forehead or admiring his appearance in general.

What? I was twenty-two and single! And Tseng was one of the few men I encountered at Shin-Ra that actually knew how to groom himself properly. There was no harm in looking. At least, that's what I liked to tell myself. Okay, so there were drawbacks to being the only female in an all-male group… Especially as a tomboy who didn't foresee what being considered 'one of the guys' meant.

Scanning the room, I noticed a third plate was nowhere to be seen. I frowned. I looked expectantly at Ronnie. He paid me no attention. I looked over at Jerry. My brow knitted with confusion. He wasn't just 'lazily' poking at his food, he seemed upset over something. His contemplative gaze was directed right at Ronnie. I glanced between them again. Did I miss something?

"Right," I said, ignoring my suspicions. "Food. Where is mine?"

"Since you decided to use all the hot water," Ronnie joked, "we decided not to give you any food. One less dish we'll have to wash in cold water."

I glared at him. Bring it on, little man. I'll roast _you_, how 'bout that?

"It's in the microwave," Jerry muttered. "It shouldn't need reheating."

Fancy that, my family wasn't the only one to hoard food in the microwave. That always led to interesting discoveries when trying to reheat coffee. I walked to the kitchen, found the microwave, retrieved my food, still warm, and went back into the living room. I sat down next to Ronnie. I was boycotting the loveseat since I still hadn't cleaned that little spot off. Oops. In my defense, I had no time to do that while lying, face down, in a drug-induced coma on the couch.

The sauce on the chicken seemed to be a very close recipe to sweet-and-sour. I briefly mused if there was an actual name to that, but then came to the conclusion that I didn't care. It tasted nice, what did it matter what it was called? The rice was a little mushier than that typically found in Chinese restaurants, but I had to give the boys credit. It tasted better than mine.

As I ate, I couldn't help but notice there _was_ something in the atmosphere of the room. I just couldn't figure out what it was.

"If you guys want anymore, I suggest you get it now," Ronnie said, hopping to his feet and making his way back to the kitchen. "I _really_ don't want to eat it all…and I will."

With Ronnie out of the way, I whispered to Jerry, "Are you alright? You've been mindlessly poking your food ever since I got back."

"I'm fine," he replied. "I'm just tired. I think I'm turning in." He stood up. "You can have my bed if you want it. It'd be rude to make the girl sleep in the living room."

I scowled, "Your couch is just fine, thank you."

He shrugged, "Suit yourself."

Jerry passed Ronnie on his way to the kitchen to put his plate in the sink. Without another word, the young man walked back through the living room. I watched him apprehensively as he walked up the stairs and disappeared out of sight. Slowly, I then turned to face Ronnie, giving him a hard stare. He pretended not to notice but the tenseness in his shoulders hinted that he was hiding something.

"What did you say?" I inquired.

Ronnie playfully smiled, "_Nooo_-thing."

I frowned, "You've teased him about something, haven't you?"

"Maaaybe."

"And you're not going to tell me, are you?" I asked in annoyance.

"Nope!"

"Figures. I'll find out on my own."

"Oh-ho, I bet you will."

Narrowing my eyes, I asked, "What do you mean by that?"

Ronnie shoved a giant ball of rice into his mouth so that he didn't have to answer. Sure, like I was going to let him get off that easily. Oh, no. Nuh-uh.

"I'll ask him, you know?" I threatened.

Ronnie gave a broad grin, rice sticking on his teeth as he did so. My mouth fell open in horror as I wiggled in disgust.

"Ugh! Eat your food!"

The rest of dinner would have been spent in silence if Ronnie hadn't stumbled upon the remote by randomly sticking his hands in the couch cushions. I have no idea why it was hiding there. We turned the TV on, making sure to keep the noise muted so as not to wake up Jerry. The channel we kept it on was some local station showing images about a festival. Using context clues, I figured that they were going to have a little festival soon, and it was talking about that. Everyone seemed excited. Too bad I wouldn't be staying around to take part in the festivities.

After we'd finished, Ronnie took up my plate with his. When he returned, he pulled out a cell phone from his pocket and handed it to me.

"My number's already in it," he said. "I ran into Barret while in the little shop down the road. It sells miscellaneous travel things. I _guess_ cell phones fall in that category. Anyway! He gave me the lowdown on what the gang is planning. Both 'team leaders' are getting something called a PHS. Think that means Personal Handheld System. I can't remember, but at least the letters fit."

I nodded slowly, "That they do."

"The PHS is going to allow Cloud and Barret to stay in touch with each other, and it'll be a little more secure than just a cell phone. Shin-Ra won't be thinking to hack into such an out-of-date manner of communication. That and the frequencies are a little different. However, the PHS system needs the groups to be relatively close to each other to work properly. So, flying halfway across the world and then trying to call someone is out of the question.

"Me? I'm sticking to good old-fashioned cell phones. That PHS thing doesn't have any games. Besides, no one uses that anymore, how would I call anybody? Psh."

"With everything you've told me, wouldn't the PHS be the old-fashioned piece of technology?"

"Manner of speech, Saan. Stop picking apart what I'm saying. _Also_, I traded my Turk-issued phone so they wouldn't be able to track me that way."

He pulled out another phone from his pocket. Generic. Black. Exactly like mine.

"This one's not as good as my old one," he said, "but it'll have to do."

I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I digested everything I'd heard. A specific statement was running over and over through my head. Finally, I just nodded and decided to address it.

"You said you traded in your Turk phone so you wouldn't get tracked. Yet, you've been in possession of that phone since we left Midgar and, even though you don't have it on you, it now resides within Kalm."

"Yeah?"

"They've had all day to track that damn thing. Depending on when they started to trace the GPS, or whatever system they use, they know we're in Kalm, and they may have known for quite some time."

"Oh, please, Saan, you worry too much," Ronnie replied, dismissing me easily. "If the Turks had already used a trace, we'd either be dead or detained by now. According to you, we _are_ allegedly responsible for demolishing an entire Sector of Midgar, murdering the President, threatening the new President, and dispatching an entire unit of the Army that came after us. They wouldn't just sit on their hands and do nothing as we twiddled our thumbs in Kalm. Though, now I do feel a little sorry for that store clerk…"

"Mm-hmm. And how did you pay for these cell phones? That money's not traceable, too, is it?"

"Give me some credit," Ronnie smirked. "I used that stash of money you'd been hiding in your room. I knew they'd be keeping tabs on the card I have."

My eyebrows rose, "You used _my stash_. I was saving that for a reason, you know." I looked down at his clothes, "So, not only did you buy two cell phones with my money, but you also bought those clothes. I'm going to kill you."

He frowned, "Well, we kinda needed them, Saan. Besides, there's still some money left."

"Enough to buy a car?"

"…no, not that much."

"I'm going to kill you." More than a little aggravated, I shooed at him with my hands, "Get off the couch, I'm going to bed."

Ronnie pouted, "Why do you get the couch? You should take the loveseat! You're smaller than me. If I get on the loveseat, my legs will be sticking off the side and my neck will bend at an uncomfortable angle."

"You're a heavy sleeper," I shot back. "You'll find a spot and pass out before you ever feel the first crick begin to form in your neck."

"Fine," he huffed. "Just know that we're leaving hella early in the morning and I wouldn't put it past AVALANCHE to just leave us here. I don't think they like us very much."

—**FFVII—**

When I woke up the next morning, Ronnie had already left. And he hadn't bothered to wake me up at all. The little twit. So help me, if I'd been left behind, I was tracking them down, killing them all, and then I'd go after Jenova my damn self.

Grumbling, I pushed myself up into a sitting position on the couch. I was briefly distracted by my ponytail. It had moved over my left shoulder. It infuriated me to no end that, whenever in a ponytail or braid, my hair gravitated to one side. What was the purpose of putting my hair up, if it was just going to get back in the way again? And again with the uneven factor! Well, fuck you, hair. You're staying that way!

It appeared that Jerry hadn't woken up, yet. Damn. I'd wanted to ask him what the hell Ronnie had said to him to get him upset. Oh, well, maybe it was for the best. I could sneak out and avoid more demands and awkward conversations.

I picked my new cell phone off the table and put it in my right pocket. My staff was near the door, just chillin' up against the wall. Getting off the couch, I made my way towards it. When I was about halfway there, I heard the top step creak. I paused mid-step. Shit. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Jerry staring at me. He looked like he'd just woken up. His hair was a little messy and he was still in his pjs, but I did notice his necklace was back around his neck. What _was_ that cat creature depicted on it?

He merely blinked at me. As he walked down the steps, he never once took his eyes off them.

"Did you sleep well?" I asked, falling into that awkward conversation I was trying to avoid.

"I slept _quite_ well. It's nice of you to ask."

I frowned. He seemed bitter. I almost scoffed. Of course he was bitter! I was trying to sneak out the door to disappear again for who knew how long.

As if reading my mind, Jerry asked, as he walked towards the kitchen, "How long do you plan to be gone _this_ time?"

I schooled my features, adopting a blank face and uninterested voice, "I don't know."

"Ah, there it is," he said, pausing in his steps. He didn't turn. He kept his left side facing me as he stared at the ground. "That tone. You always act disinterested when you try to avoid things."

"Not always," I mumbled. "Sometimes I simply run."

"Are you running?" He asked.

I caught the hidden meaning easily. Jerry wasn't trying to hide it.

"From you? No. From Shin-Ra? Hell no. From Jenova? Definitely not. From myself? Most likely. In which case, you don't have much to worry about. I don't think I'll get very far."

"Heh," he finally looked at me. "How is it you can say something like that with absolutely no emotion? Are you trying to make it sound cool? Like you're making the right decision by chasing a nightmare?"

I shrugged, "Better to chase the nightmare, hunt it down, and destroy it before it has a chance to give more sleepless nights to unwilling victims…"

"Nice metaphor," he deadpanned.

"Thanks. You gave me good material."

Jerry closed his eyes and sighed in exasperation. When he reopened them, I could see the determination in those slightly glowing, orange eyes. I knew what was coming next. I'd been waiting for it the entire day before.

"I'm coming with you," he almost threatened.

"Like hell you are," I replied smoothly.

"You can't keep me from doing it!"

"No," I admitted.

Jerry leaned back in surprise, eyebrows drawn together. We both remained silently as we stared at one another. Jerry slowly narrowed his eyes.

"You've already planned something out, haven't you?"

"Yep."

He turned his body to face me fully and then crossed his arms, "And?"

"You can't come with me, obviously. We have seven people already. Even broken up into two groups, that's a lot of people to sneak around with. And you're right; I can't _exactly _stop you from coming _with us_," I replied cryptically. I wanted to see how long it took the gears to click into place.

After a pregnant pause, Jerry said, "You want me to follow you."

I nodded once, "I need someone to watch my back. I've tried to avoid Shin-Ra before, and failed. Where I failed, you managed to succeed. Plus, you said that you've been fighting monsters for a long time. You're probably stronger than most of the group I'm traveling with. I have no doubt that you'll be fine on your own.

"The Turks are following us. I had my doubts when we first left Midgar, but something Ronnie said last night got me thinking. As you know, AVALANCHE attacked Shin-Ra and Rufus directly. The Turks would _have_ to be called once the Army and SOLDIER failed to eliminate us during our escape. Yet, I'd seen no sign of helicopters circling us. That doesn't mean the Turks weren't around."

Jerry frowned thoughtfully, wrapping his chin with his forefinger and thumb.

Looking to the side, he continued my train of thought, "Seven people walking out of Midgar, through the plains… even spread out, you'd stick out like a sore thumb." He cut his eyes back to me, "They want to know where you're going."

I nodded again, "That has to be it. Otherwise they would have shot us full of holes by now. Or sent the Army after us once we made it to Kalm. We've spent a long time here for people supposedly runnin' from the law.

"The others might think we've been lucky, but I know different. Rufus knows we're after Sephiroth. He wants him, too. For different reasons, I'm sure. Why waste us and try to find the General on his own, when we could do all the dirty work instead?"

Jerry let his arms drop. "But you said that Jenova was—"

"Yes," I interrupted. "None of the others, save for Ronnie, know we're chasing a mirage. But that doesn't matter. As callous as that is to say. Whether Jenova or Sephiroth, an entity that slaughters dozens of innocents and murders the President of Shin-Ra, only to vanish without a trace after spouting off that it isn't through, needs to be stopped."

"Is that why you're doing this?" Jerry asked, placing a hand on his hip. "To be the good citizen?"

I smirked, "Oh, that's definitely what I tell myself."

He smirked back. Then he shook his head and asked, "So? What? I'm to trail you, or do you want me to trail the Turks who are trailing you?"

Grinning, I replied, "Whatever you fancy, though the latter would definitely prove _very_ useful. Also, any information you can retrieve from that SOLDIER underground thingy you're in on."

Jerry frowned, "I'm not in any—"

"Whatever you tell yourself at night."

Jerry let the comment slide and asked, "Do you know where you're going?"

"Like I've said before, no, but it definitely won't be back to Midgar."

"Might I suggest going south, then? Since you're not using vehicles, you _could_ get some chocobos instead. I know there's a farm near here."

The blood in my veins ran cold at the mere mention of that damn farm, "I'd rather not."

Jerry blinked, a little confused as to why I seemed so reluctant to use chocobos. If he remembered the fact he near killed me after mine and Ronnie's first trip to Midgar, he didn't acknowledge it.

"Anyways," I continued with a shudder, "I have to leave now before I'm left behind because that would really suck. What with me trying to infiltrate AVALANCHE and all."

I turned from Jerry and walked the rest of the way to my staff. As I picked it up, I was suddenly grabbed from behind. My eyes widened substantially as Jerry hugged me. I could feel his lips on the back of my head.

"Don't be a hero," he whispered.

I was too stunned to reply for a few seconds. Then his words finally sunk in. I smiled a little.

"No," I mused. "That was Zack's job."

Jerry released me slowly. I looked at him over my shoulder. The look he was giving me terrified me. I think, at that point, it was safe to say the little hero-worshipping crush he'd had for me years ago had been replaced by something far stronger. And it took every ounce of my being _not_ to think of that four letter word, lest I squeak pitifully and turn into a mushy pile of goo on the floor.

Right, Saan. Get out of the house. Get out of the house now, before your brain goes, "Haha, cannot compute. Bzzt!" and leaks out your ears. You can't help Cloud as a mindless zombie.

With the same smile frozen on my face, I gave Jerry a quick wink and then beat feet out the door. The blue stones of Kalm became very interesting after that, as I walked briskly towards the archway leading into the main part of town. The more I tried _not _to think about Jerry, the more I turned the color of a ripe tomato. Because, naturally, the more you try not to think about something, the more you're actually thinking about it.

I gasped loudly, suddenly remembering the day before, "And I commented on his _ass!_" I slapped my hand against my forehead with a loud smack, "Oh, _gawd!_"

Not to mention I'd flashed him, and whoever carried my new clothes upstairs probably saw my underwear. Dear God, please let the latter have been done by Ronnie. No, don't think about that. I had to be of sound mind when I met AVALANCHE again. I don't think they would have liked me coming back from who-knows-where giggling like a madwoman because of nervousness.

Somehow I managed to talk myself down into a calm state by the time I could see the Mako pump in the center of the Circle. That calm only lasted a few nanoseconds because then I spotted Tifa standing by it, arms crossed, with a scowl on her face which was directed at me.

Happy thoughts gone.

Now, I focused on keeping my mouth shut so that Tifa could say what she needed to say. And by the look, she was probably going to yell at me. I reminded myself not to stab her no matter how loud or violent she got.

She didn't open her mouth until I was standing a few feet directly across from her.

"I don't want you traveling with us," she said, quick and to the point.

I smiled politely, "Yes, well, too bad I'm coming anyway."

"I don't like what you did to Cloud yesterday," she continued, ignoring me.

"Oh, what _I've_ done to Cloud?" I asked. "The only thing I did was try to tell the boy the truth."

"That wasn't the truth!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms to her side angrily. "Cloud never came back to Nibelheim!"

I grinned maliciously, "And yet _you_ let him believe otherwise. We're _all_ liars here, Tifa. Don't put all the blame on me."

She glared at me, her fists and jaw clenched tight in anger. She looked away from me, snapping her head to the side so fast that her hair swayed. I let her stew in silence, remaining where I was because I knew she wasn't finished. After a moment, her demeanor changed. Her shoulders slackened, her hands unclenched, and she frowned. She looked pitiful.

"He doesn't remember," she said quietly. "He never came back…but he remembers things that happened. He remembers things that didn't happen. Ever since I found him at the tracks in Midgar. I'd never seen him look so…so _broken_ before. And then he acted like everything was normal, when it wasn't. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want—"

She went silent. Furiously, she turned on me.

"This is all your fault!" She yelled. "Shin-Ra. SOLDIER. All of it! If you'd never come to Nibelheim, none of this would have happened!"

I snapped, "Girl, you will NOT blame me for that!"

Tifa jerked back in surprise.

"I joined SOLDIER to help my friends. All I ever did was fight to protect them. That's all _any of us_ ever did, and, by God, I will _not_ stand by and let you _demean_ their sacrifices with your _petty_ blame and anger! Not for the actions of ONE MAN!" I took a steadying breath and growled lowly, "Now you listen here. I did _everything_ I thought I could to stop Sephiroth that night. I helped _your villagers_ escape. It was a _SOLDIER_ that tried to save your life by stopping Sephiroth. And you _dare_ disrespect him?"

"I—" Tifa stuttered.

"I'm not finished!" I roared. "Now sooner or later the truth is going to come out. Don't, _for one second_, doubt your pretty little head about that. Sephiroth was there. Sephiroth knows. And he will _not_ hesitate to use that against that poor boy in there!" I thrust my finger violently towards the Inn. "He will _decimate_ that child. He will rip him to _shreds_. And you goddamn better be there to pick up the pieces, Tifa, or_ so help me!_ DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!"

"Yes!" Tifa screeched angrily, trembling a little despite her efforts not to.

She wasn't the only one shaking. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm down. My right hand was wrapped so tightly around my staff that I couldn't move my fingers, they were so stiff.

"And don't _you_ think twice that I won't beat your skull in if you hurt him!" Tifa shouted, her voice cracking a little.

I smiled in relief. Opening my eyes, I looked at her, "Tifa. I have absolutely no desire to harm that boy. Nor will I willing allow him to come to harm. I owe it to an old friend of mine."

She frowned darkly at me. Before Tifa could come up with something else to throw at me the door to the Inn opened. Barret came striding out, yelling about something. We could hear him all the way at the pump.

Tifa gave me one last glare before wiping the expression off her face. She turned and jogged her way over to Barret and Cloud, Cloud having emerged shortly after the boisterous, gun-armed man. She greeted them happily enough. No trace of our verbal war lingered. I had to hand it to her, she was a good actress. Props to be given when earned.

Placing my staff across my shoulders, I walked towards the growing group as the AVALANCHE members filed out of the Inn, Ronnie bringing up the rear with Aerith. Cloud's attention was directed at me when I fell in line with the rest.

"Took you long enough," he commented.

I shrugged, "Had some loose ends to tie up. You find out which way we goin'?"

"Word on the street," Barret replied, "is some man in a black cloak, lookin' scary, and carryin' a killer sword headed east 'cross them fields."

Frowning, I asked, "Cloak? Sephiroth wears a _coat_."

"Maybe he's wearing a disguise," Aerith answered.

And yet failed to mask the Masamune? No. And…how did he have the Masamune if he left it in the back of the President? She. Since, it was Jenova. Well, the first sword was a fake. Maybe the second was, too? How many swords could she pull out of her ass?

"Coat, cloak, cape, it doesn't matter what he's wearing. That sword is what gives him away," Cloud said.

"If I remember correctly, heading due east will lead us straight into the ocean," I muttered. "Unless Sephiroth gained the ability to walk on water, I don't think he went that way."

Red XIII frowned. An interesting expression on a lion-dog. "I do not think our source was very reliable. He smelled of alcohol."

"Trust me, even when drunk, people generally don't have hallucinations," Ronnie said. "Maybe the direction he gave was all that was wrong with his description?"

"Well," Tifa replied in thought. "If he didn't go east… He couldn't have gone west, that would lead him straight into Midgar. North just leads to the ocean, too. What about south?"

I twitched, "Chocobos."

Everyone looked at me.

"What?" Cloud asked.

I shuddered, "There's a farm to the south of here that deals in selling and raising chocobos. It's near the swamp."

"Dammit!" Barret shouted suddenly, "I remember now! There's a cave system past that swamp. Runs right through the mount'ins. The west coast's where Junon's at!"

Cloud frowned, "If Sephiroth's planning to attack Shin-Ra again, that's probably where he's going."

"It's also a sea port," Tifa added. "He could probably hop on a ship without anyone knowing."

"I hate to say this. For personal reasons," I reluctantly interrupted. "But…if we're crossing the swamp…the only way to do that is on chocobos."

Again, everyone was staring at me. AVALANCHE because they were probably curious on how I knew so much about that damned farm, Ronnie because he was smiling wickedly at me.

"There's a giant ass snake in the swamp and the only thing fast enough to outrun it is a chocobo," I grumbled.

Aerith frowned a little, "I can't really picture Sephiroth riding a chocobo."

"He doesn't have to worry about monsters," Cloud replied darkly. "All right. I guess we'll have to go to that farm, then. Tifa, Aerith, Red XIII, you're with me. Barret, you take Saan and Ronnie."

Barret and I immediately started to protest. Of course, we were protesting at the same time, so we didn't make much sense. Cloud silenced us with a hard stare.

"Barret, I want you to figure out whether or not we can trust these two or not. If we can't, shoot 'em."

"Uh!" Ronnie whimpered, "That's a little harsh, don't you think?"

"No," Cloud replied evenly. "Besides, Saan has high-leveled Materia, and your group before, Barret, didn't. I'm trying to balance out the groups' fighting power."

"Awright, fine," Barret grumbled, crossing his arms. "If I get to shoot some Shin-Ra, I guess it's worth it."

"You sound like you've already made up your mind, big guy," I commented.

He gave me the evil eye. I resisted the urge to snort. Sometimes Barret looked intimidating and other times the poor guy just tried _way_ too hard. Ronnie was pouting when he walked over to our side. Looking back at Cloud, I tried my best not to cut my eyes over to Tifa to glare at her. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought she'd planned this somehow.

"My group will take point," Cloud ordered. "Barret, you follow after us, but not too close. And don't fall too far behind, either."

As Cloud's group was walking away, Barret yelled, "Yo, Spikey, whazzat supposed to mean? You think I walk slow or sumthin'!"

Aerith laughed, turned, and waved at him with her arm, "See ya later, Barret!"

Growling, Barret shook his fist angrily at the retreating figures, "That lil', blond bastard! Who's he think he is, orderin' me aroun'?"

"The leader?" I half-asked.

Barret looked down at me, frowning in annoyance. He smiled suddenly and I knew I should be afraid.

"That's right!" He shouted, grabbing his gun arm, "And not only did he make me leader o' this lil' group, but I got permission to shoot ya if I don't like ya!"

"I thought he said if you didn't trust us, you were supposed to shoot us. Not that if you didn't like us, you were supposed to shoot us," Ronnie said, using his pointed fingers to try and illustrate his thoughts.

Barret pointed his gun-arm at Ronnie. Ronnie quickly shut up and put his hands in the air, staring down his nose at the giant barrel mere inches in front of his face.

"March, Turk!" Barret commanded. Ronnie happily obliged while I followed him in mild amusement. Barret continued, "I don't like _your_ kind, and I shure as hell don't _trust_ ya. You better be glad that I haven't shot ya yet. The thought's crossed my mind more than once. Now, you and ya little girlfriend are gonna stay in front of me and, don't you worry, I got yer backs."

Barret allowed us a few yards distance between us and him. I supposed it was so he could take us both out with relative ease. Or maybe he just didn't want blood splatter to get on him if he shot us at close range. Hell, he might have not wanted to be around us just because we _were_ Shin-Ra and he'd catch cooties or something. Whatever the case, I was thankful he'd given us some room.

"_How_ are you so calm?" Ronnie whispered harshly. "There's a psycho behind us and he's got us in his sights!"

"Because I've learned that Barret, for all his bark, has yet to try and bite," I replied. "Relax! He's not going to shoot us. I think it just makes him feel better if he can threaten people."

Ronnie stared at me, slack-jawed, "That doesn't help _me_ feel any better!"

I smirked.

We walked on in silence for a few moments. Ronnie had actually broken into a sweat. I shook my head at him. For someone who worked for the most dangerous branch of Shin-Ra, he sure didn't know how to handle pressure. I was a little relieved he didn't have his gun on him anymore. Ronnie was a bad enough shot as it was, I didn't want to know what he could do with an itchy trigger finger.

"So," Ronnie spoke up. "What'd you think of Jerry?"

"It's a little disturbing to see how he's changed," I admitted.

"He grew a set," Ronnie agreed.

"_That's_ definitely an image I wanted."

He chuckled, "You're the one that went in the gutter so fast." He paused before asking, "By the way, did you ask him about what we talked about?"

"No," I replied. "But, then again, I didn't need to."

"_Really?_" Ronnie asked, frowning a little in his curiosity. "How'd you figure it out?"

"When he hugged me from behind as I was leaving."

"D'aw," Ronnie cooed. "You'd make a cute couple."

"Gee, thanks, Ronnie," I smirked. "I'm so glad I have you around to approve my choice in men."

"Ha ha," he replied sarcastically. "I see what ya did thar."

My smirk grew. It then became a small smile as I remembered that last embrace—Jerry's warmth and the feeling of his lips against my hair. The smile disappeared slowly, however, when I suddenly realized that wasn't the first time Jerry had held me from behind.

My memory jumped quickly to the day before, when Jerry had seen me for the first time in five years. The time I fell into his arm after the dragon had released me. The time he had dragged me down with him to hide behind a crate during Genesis' attack in Sector 8.

Suddenly, I started laughing. Ronnie gave me a confused look. Shaking my head, I grinned.

"And I told him to watch my back. Ha!"

He'd been watching it all along.

.

.

.

**A/N: BWAH HAHAHA! I typed "leeks out your ears". Don't think that's what's meant by vegetative state. And, I swear, if Word says "all your fault" should be changed to "your entire fault" one more time, I'm going to stab it. Also, this is what's in my notes: LEAVE THE INN, THERE'S A MAN OUTSIDE WITH REDDISH HAIR, TALK TO HIM, HE SAYS 'LISTEN TO ME! JUST NOW, SOME GUY IN A BLACK CLOAK GOES WALKED (goes walked? really?) EAST TOWARDS THAT GRASSY FIELD. AND HE'S GOT THIS KILLER SWORD, AND IS LOOKING REAL SCARY...' HMM. Ah, Game. This man are sick!**

**Tifa and Saan confrontation. Hopefully Yuleen is satisfied. You know, SOLDIER is like one big conga line. Everybody chases someone, for various reasons. Genesis chases after Sephiroth, Angeal chases after Genesis, Zack chases after Angeal, Cloud chases after Zack, Saan chases after Cloud, Jerry chases after Saan. Hmm...**

**Ronnie's weapons have been in the works since the Crisis Core arc. It was a little hard trying to make something that was originally just supposed to look cool sound functional. I tried my best. Ronnie's outfit brought to you by The Sims 3. Because the only thing I remembered him telling me was he wanted loafers and I looked at him from the passenger seat of the car and went, "Are you insane?"**

**Oh, and I didn't make that drug up. The novel mentions it. In two different areas. The effects of the drug are most likely fabricated in my fic, but if it was meant to numb Mako effects, it's probably similar to a pain reliever, and I know how I act on a strong pain reliever.**

**Title comes from The Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani. See, AVALANCHE is escaping Shin-Ra, you all are escaping Kalm, and it ends on a sweet note. I SO SMAWT. It could also be known as "The chapter in which the OCs get updated in their appearances." Well, Jerry hasn't yet, per se. -smirk- You'll just have to wait for that one.**

**So. Yeah. Saan and Jerry. Have fun, fans. -pirouettes away- ... -pirouettes back- I don't know where that's going, either. :D (Wow, I spelled that right.)**


End file.

Final Fantasy VII, Adventure